A genuinely mind-expanding book. (Patrick Ness GUARDIAN)
She is one of the most gifted writers in her country (Isabel Allende)
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 (Rita Mae Brown)
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. (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)
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. (Benjamin Zephaniah)
A unique blend of serenity and immediacy that makes your senses ache (Helen Dunmore)
Alice Walker is a lavishly gifted writer (New York Times)
A fable for the modern world (Washington Post)
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 (Publishers Weekly)
Add this great book to your collection now. (PRIDE MAGAZINE (1 September 2004))
'One of the most haunting books you could ever wish to read¿it is stunning - moving, exciting, and wonderful' Lenny Henry
Set in the deep American south between the wars, this is the classic tale of Celie, a young poor black girl. Raped repeatedly by her father, she loses two children and then is married off to a man who treats her no better than a slave. She is separated from her sister Nettie and dreams of becoming like the glamorous Shug Avery, a singer and rebellious black woman who has taken charge of her own destiny. Gradually Celie discovers the support of women that enables her to leave the past behind and begin a new life.