First published in 1990, The Temple of My Familiar, Alice Walker s follow-up novel to her iconic The Color Purple, spent more than four months on the New York Times Bestseller list and was hailed by critics as a major achievement ( Chicago Tribune ). Described by the author as a romance of the last 500,000 years, The Temple of My Familiar follows a cast of interrelated characters, most of African descent, and each representing a different ethnic strain ranging from diverse African tribes to the mixed bloods of Latin America that contribute to the black experience in America. "