In Colours of War, Cohen crafts a parabolic allegory about authority, obedience, and rebellion. Set in a society fractured by conflict, the novel uses colour as a metaphor for division and violence, exploring how people respond to systems of power. Characters wrestle with questions of moral responsibility, conformity, and resistance, echoing Canadian anxieties of the 1970s in the wake of the October Crisis and the War Measures Act.
The novel is both fantastical and political, a sharp commentary on the dangers of blind obedience and the human cost of war.