Booklist Review

In Joshua's Bible, 0 Leanne tells the bittersweet tale of Joshua Clay, a studious young black man from Ohio coming of age in the time of Marcus Garvey and the Harlem Renaissance. Keen to serve the Lord, Clay is honored to be sent to South Africa as a missionary among the Xhosa. Coming from a country with its own racial problems, Joshua can scarcely miss the irony of being named an "Honorary White," and though he does his best to perform as his church has directed, he cannot escape the fact that his status is that of an Uncle Tom. His consciousness is raised, he falls in love with a Xhosa, and then he throws himself body and soul against the rising tide of apartheid, signaled by forced relocations and indefinite jail sentences. A deeply felt novel, splendidly researched. --John Mort Copyright 2003 Booklist