The Color Purple by Alice Walker

 genre: historical fiction

Celie and Nettie, two sisters living in the rural south who are separated as girls. Their letters to each other span their life experiences as they grow up Black in a world that has no love for Blackness. Our main character is Celie and her story is a heartbreaking one, full of abuse and pain and we see that she values herself as much as everyone else does - that is to say, not really at all. But her steadfast love of Nettie as well as the caretaking of other people that come into her life, this slowly allows Celie to find companionship and, hopefully, some well-deserved redemption.

This novel can break you. I read it as a teen and while I think I tried to appreciate it at the time, I have no real memory of it ripping my heart open the way it did this time. What this novel teaches you is that humans can be so cruel and thoughtless, that life can just be one endless round of hating and fighting and abuse until someone steps in and above it to stop it, and how wickedly beautiful it is when that happens. What really resonated with me is the idea that beauty belongs to all of us, that God (whatever that looks like to you) sees and loves everything good. I finished this book feeling scratched raw and then cleansed, that lingering sting the evidence that I’m still alive, and that as long as I can keep finding reasons to live that there is still a chance for good things to come my way. 

This book is a freaking work of art.