In this, her superb second novel, Alice Walker gives us the story of Meridian Hill, pregnant, married and separated, all by the time she is seventeen. But Meridian is gradually becoming politically aware as she watches the news on the television, and is horrified when she sees the bombing of a house of young Civil Rights workers.

From this moment on, Meridian becomes fiercely involved in the struggle, moving to the Deep South, leaving her child behind, joining college, and fighting for the rights of her people.

Throughout the sixties, Meridian's commitment matures and deepens, but talk of revolution has become unfashionable and the dream of individual success reasserts its power over people's hearts and minds. Now Meridian must struggle increasingly alone to keep faithful to her dream of change.

Meridian is Alice Walker's superb and groundbreaking novel of one young woman's experience of the Civil Rights movement; of the contradictions of love, of social and political change.