Book excerpt: A wonderful retelling of and new insight ino the familiar biblical tales in wonderfully rich and telling language (a delight in itself), written by the nineteenth-century American author Roark Bradford. For a while devalued due to its supposedly demeaning and patronising use of 'blackie' speech, it is now recognised as a serious contribution to American literature. As later adapted by Marc Connelly it forms the original text for the successful ( but in some views less robust) play Green Pastures.