"Intense emotional impact... Indelibly affecting... Alice Walker is a lavishly gifted writer."

--The New York Times Book Review

"Places Walker in the company of Faulkner."

--The Nation

"Superb... A work to stand beside literature of any time and place. "

--San Francisco Chronicle

The Color Purple is the.story of two sisters--one a missionary to Africa and the other a child wife living in the South--who remain loyal to one another across time, distance, and silence. Beautifully imagined and deeply compassionate, this classic of American literature is rich with passion, pain, inspiration, and an indomitable love of life.