The Color Purple by Alice Walker

"Look at you. You black, you poor, you ugly, you a woman. Goddam, he say, you nothing at all."

The Color Purple is the story of Celie, told in her own words as a series of letters to God and her sister, Nettie. Poor, black and female, Celie is at the bottom of the social order in rural Georgia in the 1930s. Going from an abusive father to an abusive husband, Celie eventually finds love, strength and acceptance through her friendship with brash jazz singer, Shug Avery.

This book broke my heart and made me cry, and yet was strangely uplifting. Walker never shies away from revealing the sexual abuse, racism and violence that was part of life for many poor black women in America at that time. The misery seems unrelenting but Celie is such an intriguing and quietly admirable character that you stick with it, cheering her on and desperately hoping that things get better. But no white knight saves her. This is a woman's story, told by a woman about women. There are male characters - fathers, sons, husbands and so on - but it is the women who allow Celie to realise her true worth and rescue herself. 

Read On: The Help by Katherine Stockett is based on the experiences of black women, set instead in 1950s Mississippi. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou is a memoir of the writer's early life in Arkansas, and touches on many of the same issues.