The Color Purple

Dear God: I am fourteen years old. I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me... So begins Alice Walker's touching, complex and engrossing novel, set in the harsh, segregated world of the Deep South between the wars. Celie has been raped by the man she calls father; her two children are taken away from her; she has been forced into an ugly marriage. She has no one to talk to but God. Then she meets Shug Avery, the singer, the magic woman, and discovers not the pain of rivalry but the love and support of a woman.