The stunning "New York Times" bestseller, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Color Purple," reissued in a handsome new edition. 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.