In this “brilliant” (Essence) sequel to The Color Purple, Alice Walker weaves an intricate, rich tapestry of interrelated lives.
This edition includes a new Letter to the Reader by Alice Walker.
Celie and Shug from The Color Purple subtly shadow the lives of the dozens of astonishing characters in The Temple of My Familiar, all of whom are dealing in some way with the legacy of the African experience in America. From recent African immigrants to a woman who grew up in the mixed-race rainforest communities of South America to Celie’s own granddaughter living in modern-day San Francisco, they must come to terms with the brutal stories of their ancestors in order to confront their own troubled lives.
Described by the author as “a romance of the last 500,000 years,” The Temple of My Familiar creates a new mythology from old fables and history, and along with it a profoundly spiritual explanation for centuries of shared African American experience.
“The richness of [this] novel is amazing, overwhelming. A hundred themes and subjects spin through it, dozens of characters, a whirl of time and places. None is touched superficially: all the people are passionate actors and sufferers, and everything they talk about is urgent, a matter truly of life and death. They’re like Dostoyevsky’s characters, relentlessly raising the great moral questions and pushing one another towards self-knowledge, honesty, engagement.” —Ursula K. LeGuin
ALICE WALKER is an internationally celebrated writer, poet, and activist whose books include seven novels, four collections of short stories, four children’s books, and volumes of essays and poetry. She won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 1983 and the National Book Award.
Hometown:
Mendocino, California
Date of Birth:
February 9, 1944
Place of Birth:
Eatonton, Georgia
Education:
B.A., Sarah Lawrence College, 1965; attended Spelman College, 1961-63
What People are Saying About This
Isabel Allende
Alice Walker is one of the most gifted writers of this country. The Temple of My Familiar is like a long dream. It has the magic, the freedom, the beauty, and the horror of dreams. History, symbols, myth, legends, fantasy, and everyday life are entwined to form a rich tapestry.
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