The Color Purple

Discover the source material that inspired the recently released, daringly remade movie, which stars Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and Fantasia Barrino and was produced by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg.

Recipient of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize

The Colour Purple, a potent literary classic of contemporary America, portrays African American women's life in rural Georgia in the early 20th century. Sisters Celie and Nettie, who were split up as young girls, remain devoted to and hopeful for one another despite silence, time, and distance. The work captivates readers with its vivid and enduring depictions of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery, and Sofia and their experiences via a sequence of letters that span twenty years, first from Celie to God and then the sisters to each other in spite of the unknown. The Colour Purple shattered the taboo surrounding sexual and domestic violence by telling the stories of women's suffering, development, friendship, courage, and perseverance. Readers are taken on a spirit-affirming journey towards love and atonement in Alice Walker's epic, which is magnificently envisioned and incredibly empathetic.

"I had never considered Southern, Black women's writing to be considered international literature until I read The Colour Purple. Through Alice Walker's fearless, unabashed, and honest writing, she has given us a gift we will never be able to return. –Edison Jones

"The Colour Purple is still the only work of art in the world by which all three generations of Black artists in my family judge American art. It was what church should have been, what honest familial reckoning could have been." — Laymon Kiese