Possessing the secret of joy - alice walker

A New York Times bestseller, this novel tells the story of a tribal African woman now living in North America, who tries to reconcile her African heritage with her experience as a modern woman in America.

From the author the New York Times Book Review calls a lavishly gifted writer, this is the searing story of Tashi, a tribal African woman first glimpsed in The Color Purple whose fateful decision to submit to the tsungas knife and be genitally mutilated leads to a trauma that informs her life and fatefully alters her existence.

Possessing the Secret of Joy , out of print for a number of years, was the first novel to deal with this controversial topic and managed to do so in a manner that Cosmopolitan called masterful, honorable, and unforgettable storytelling.

The New Press is proud to bring the book back into print with a new preface by the author addressing the books initial reception and the changed attitudes toward female genital mutilation that have come about in part because of this book.