In the Beginning: Illustrated Stories from the Old Testament

Description

Featuring a neon and metallic cover, this spectacular volume is a work of literary art. From Genesis to the Book of Daniel, it recounts 35 stories from the Old Testament in a modern and inviting way, combining spirited illustrations with spare, eloquent prose. Acclaimed illustrator Serge Bloch expertly captures the many scenes in these beloved tales, conveying extraordinary breadth of emotion and action in his seemingly simple drawings. Biblical expert Frederic Boyer and poet and translator Cole Swensen contribute accessible and enlightening text, further illuminating the stories with notes on their history and symbolism. Full of contemporary resonance, here are universal stories of love, anger, betrayal, faith, and courage-revealed in a way that encourages readers of all ages and faiths to engage with them anew.

Serge Bloch is an award-winning French artist and author. For twenty years he has also served as the artistic director of Bayard Jeunesse. Bloch's beloved illustrations have appeared in more than three hundred books and in major newspapers and magazines in France and the United States. Frederic Boyer is a French writer and translator versed in biblical interpretation. The author of more than thirty books, Boyer is the publisher of Editions Bayard, and co-directed this new translation of the Old Testament, drawing on the skills of experts in biblical exegesis, specialists of the biblical languages, and those of contemporary authors. Cole Swensen is an American poet, translator, editor, and professor. She is the author of fifteen books of poetry and the recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a PEN USA Award for Literary Translation, and the Iowa Poetry Prise. She teaches poetry and literature at Brown University in Rhode Island.

You could sit down with this cartoonish picture book and read many of these stories to your child at bedtime. And when your child falls asleep, carry this book to your easy chair, study the readings, and dream new meaning into myths you may have ignored, forgotten, rejected or never really understood. "A scriptural tour de force. Frederic Boyer sets 35 biblical tales in a wry, trenchant, postmodern landscape using language that captures the power of the ancient Hebrew while utilizing contemporary expressions and deep wit to make the stories (and his assessments of them) accessible to a wide range of readers.... Accompanying these playful translations are Serge Bloch's entrancing illustrations.... Intelligent and challenging in word and art, Boyer and Bloch convey universal Biblical stories of love, death, freedom, and responsibility with a delightful, alluring innocence for all ages." --Publishers Weekly Starred Review