<i>The Color Purple</i> 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.

The great irony about <i>The Color Purple</i> 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 unique blend of serenity and immediacy that makes your senses ache

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

One of the most haunting books you could ever wish to read ... it is stunning - moving, exciting, and wonderful

Lenny Henry

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

DAILY EXPRESS

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, bestselling author of The Vanishing Half