Written by Zora Neale Hurston

Episode 2
To Janie's horror, Nanny is determined to marry her off to the widower Logan Killicks, to protect her honour. But Janie isn't interested in his sixty acres. At sixteen years old, she has dreams of "kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world." And to her, Logan Killicks looks like "some ole skull head in de grave yard."

This African-American classic was first published in the 1930s and is seen as one of the greatest American novels of the twentieth century. The author, Zora Neale Hurston, grew up in Eatonville, Florida, the first incorporated black town in America. Nearly every black female writer of significance - including Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker - acknowledges Zora Neale Hurston as her literary foremother.

"A rigorous, convincing and dazzling piece of prose, as emotionally satisfying as it is impressive." Zadie Smith

Read by Adjoa Andoh
Abridged and produced by Jane Marshall
A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4. Show less