Meridian: With an introduction by Tayari Jones (W&N Essentials)

'My life suddenly made sense when I encountered Alice Walker's fiction' Tayari Jones
'Remarkable' New York Times

Meridian Hill, the brilliant and inquisitive daughter of a working-class Black family in the American south, comes of age against the turbulent backdrop of the 1960s civil rights movement. Life starts out hard - at seventeen, she finds herself married with a child and denied an education because of it. But Meridian is passionate and resolute, determined to improve the lives of those around her, even in the face of oppression and uncertainty, heartbreak and failing health. And amid the chaos of social upheaval, Meridian discovers who she is - a woman capable of great courage, resilience and hope.

Charting the story of the civil rights movement through one woman's struggle, Meridian is a powerful meditation on community, womanhood and self-discovery from the Pulitzer-prize winning author of The Color Purple.