Possessing the Secret of Joy: A Novel - Softcover

Walker, Alice

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1595583645 ISBN 13: 9781595583642

Publisher: The New Press, 2008

Synopsis

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 tsunga’s 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 book’s initial reception and the changed attitudes toward female genital mutilation that have come about in part because of this book.

About this title

About the Author:

Alice Walker is one of the most prolific and important writers of our time, known for her literary fiction, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Color Purple (which was also a major Broadway play), her many volumes of poetry, and her powerful nonfiction collections. She is the author of We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For, Possessing the Secret of Joy, The World Has Changed (edited by Rudolph P. Byrd), The Chicken Chronicles, The World Will Follow Joy, and The Cushion in the Road, all published by The New Press. Some of her other bestselling books include In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, The Temple of My Familiar, By the Light of My Father’s Smile, and The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart. Her advocacy on behalf of the dispossessed has spanned the globe. She lives in Northern California.

From AudioFile:

Tashi-Evelyn Johnson, the African heroine of Possessing the Secret of Joy, submits to the ritual female circumcision and spends the rest of her life trying to understand its meaning and live with its consequences. This story, which is told from the different perspectives of Tashi and her family, flows from one character's recollection to another, not always chronologically. Having two exceptional readers, Alice Walker and Joe Morton, helps the listener differentiate between the characters. Both speak in pleasant, well-modulated voices, and Morton is particularly adept in conveying different accents. Enchanting music from an embaire, an African log xylophone, signals the end of each cassette. A.A.B. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: The New Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1595583645
• ISBN 13: 9781595583642
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 286