THE ICONIC CLASSIC, WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
ONE OF THE BBC ‘100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD’
‘A lush celebration of all that it means to be a black female. I love that The Color Purple doesn’t try to soften its blows but is also courageous enough to hold on to a wonderfully affirming faith in possibility, in forgiveness and kindness and hope’
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
‘The Color Purple is my go-to comfort novel. Every single time I read this book, I walk away as a slightly better person than I was when I picked it up’
Tayari Jones
‘I think that The Color Purple was the first book that made me think that I could try to be a writer – or that made me aware that a young black woman from the South could write about the South’
Jesmyn Ward
‘I got the book and read it, in one day, when it came out. And then I went back, the next day, and bought every copy they had’
Oprah Winfrey
A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia.
Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown.
Abused repeatedly by the man she calls ‘father’, Celie has two children taken away from her and is trapped into an ugly marriage. But then she meets the glamorous Shug Avery, singer and magic-maker – a woman who has taken charge of her own destiny.
And gradually Celie discovers the power and joy of her own spirit, freeing her from her past and reuniting her with those she loves.
Beloved by generations of readers, The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery. Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker’s epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey towards redemption and love.
‘A story about Black women living in the intersections of racialized and gendered violence, who find liberation through community with each other. A brutal and beautiful novel’
Brit Bennett
‘One of the most haunting books you could ever wish to read. It is stunning – moving, exciting and wonderful’
Lenny Henry
‘The Color Purple needs no category other than the fact that it is superb’
Rita Mae Brown
‘The great irony about The Color Purple is that it transcends colour. One of the greatest books of all time’
Benjamin Zephaniah
‘A unique blend of serenity and immediacy that makes your senses ache’
Helen Dunmore
‘A genuinely mind-expanding book’
Patrick Ness
‘Indelibly affecting… Alice Walker is a lavishly gifted writer’
New York Times
‘One of the great books of our time’
Essence Magazine
‘A work to stand beside literature of any time and place’
San Francisco Chronicle
ONE OF THE BBC ‘100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD’
‘A lush celebration of all that it means to be a black female. I love that The Color Purple doesn’t try to soften its blows but is also courageous enough to hold on to a wonderfully affirming faith in possibility, in forgiveness and kindness and hope’
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
‘The Color Purple is my go-to comfort novel. Every single time I read this book, I walk away as a slightly better person than I was when I picked it up’
Tayari Jones
‘I think that The Color Purple was the first book that made me think that I could try to be a writer – or that made me aware that a young black woman from the South could write about the South’
Jesmyn Ward
‘I got the book and read it, in one day, when it came out. And then I went back, the next day, and bought every copy they had’
Oprah Winfrey
A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia.
Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown.
Abused repeatedly by the man she calls ‘father’, Celie has two children taken away from her and is trapped into an ugly marriage. But then she meets the glamorous Shug Avery, singer and magic-maker – a woman who has taken charge of her own destiny.
And gradually Celie discovers the power and joy of her own spirit, freeing her from her past and reuniting her with those she loves.
Beloved by generations of readers, The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery. Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker’s epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey towards redemption and love.
‘A story about Black women living in the intersections of racialized and gendered violence, who find liberation through community with each other. A brutal and beautiful novel’
Brit Bennett
‘One of the most haunting books you could ever wish to read. It is stunning – moving, exciting and wonderful’
Lenny Henry
‘The Color Purple needs no category other than the fact that it is superb’
Rita Mae Brown
‘The great irony about The Color Purple is that it transcends colour. One of the greatest books of all time’
Benjamin Zephaniah
‘A unique blend of serenity and immediacy that makes your senses ache’
Helen Dunmore
‘A genuinely mind-expanding book’
Patrick Ness
‘Indelibly affecting… Alice Walker is a lavishly gifted writer’
New York Times
‘One of the great books of our time’
Essence Magazine
‘A work to stand beside literature of any time and place’
San Francisco Chronicle
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Reviews
One of the most haunting books you could ever wish to read ... it is stunning - moving, exciting, and wonderful
A story about Black women living in the intersections of racialized and gendered violence, who find liberation through community with each other. A brutal and beautiful novel
A genuinely mind-expanding book.
The Color Purple is a work to stand beside literature for any time and any place. It needs no category other than the fact that it is superb
The great irony about The Color Purple is that it transcends colour. To do that you have to be a magician or a genius. This book works on all levels, the political, the historical, the personal, the emotional, the spiritual . . . Not a word is wasted, every breath accounted for. We all know that this is one of the greatest books of all time.
A stunning, brilliantly conceived book . . . a saga filled with joy and pain, humor and bitterness, and an array of characters who live, breathe and illuminate the world of black women
A unique blend of serenity and immediacy that makes your senses ache
The Color Purple is a lush celebration of all that it means to be female, to be a black female and like the best of celebrations, it is an honest one. Alice Walker's honesty in this book is combative, relentless and redemptive. It is from this honesty that bitterness emerges, and yet the bitterness never blights the encompassing humanity of Walker's vision.I love that The Color Purple doesn't try to soften its blows but is also courageous enough to hold on to a wonderfully affirming faith in possibility, in forgiveness and kindness and hope.
A fable for the modern world
She is one of the most gifted writers in her country
Alice Walker is a lavishly gifted writer
This made Alice Walker the first black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize. It's a fascinating but tough read because it deals with the abuse of women and children. Despite the brutality, it's filled with hope and optimism