And the Ass Saw the Angel is the first novel by the Australian musician and singer Nick Cave, originally published in 1989 by Black Spring Press in the United Kingdom and HarperCollins in the United States. It was re-published in 2003 by 2.13.61. A luxury "collector's edition" was released, in the summer of 2007, by Black Spring Press. The title is a biblical quotation from the Book of Numbers, Chapter 22, Verses 23-31: "And the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, ...". With its Southern Gothic setting, critics have compared it favorably with novels by American authors William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor. Cave's second novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, was published in September 2009. In 2009, "Nick Cave: The Exhibition" toured nationally in Australia. The exhibition - which displayed original lyrics, notebooks, artwork, photography and books, as well as objects from Cave's own library and office - included Cave's original manuscript of And the Ass Saw the Angel. Origin The origin of And the Ass Saw the Angel was an unfilmed screenplay by Cave and Evan English titled Swampland (a song bearing that title appeared on the Mutiny! EP released by Cave's band, The Birthday Party, in 1983). When the film project fell through, Cave expanded the script into a novel. Cave's essay The Flesh Made Word - written for a radio broadcast by BBC Radio 3 in 1996 and reprinted in King Ink II in 1997 - includes Cave's recollection of writing And the Ass Saw the Angel: Plot And the Ass Saw the Angel tells the story of Euchrid Eucrow, a mute born to an abusive drunken mother and a father obsessed with animal torture and the building of dangerous traps. The family live in a valley of fanatically religious Ukulites, where they are shunned. Euchrid's mental breakdown includes horrific angelic visions, and the story builds towards Euchrid exacting terrible vengeance on the people who have made him suffer. Major themes The lyrics of some of the songs from the first few albums of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (From Her to Eternity, The Firstborn Is Dead and Your Funeral... My Trial), are extensions of the ideas represented in the novel. The title comes from the Bible, the Book of Numbers 22:23, where Balaam does not see the angel of the Lord but his donkey does. The Bible is heavily referenced