- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Crown (May 4 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1400052726
- ISBN-13: 978-1400052721
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.2 x 2.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 499 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #733,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Yet another entry in the burgeoning subgenre of fictional portraits of biblical women (see, for example, Rebecca Kohn's retelling of the story of Queen Esther in The Gilded Chamber), Halter's novel (the first in a trilogy) adheres to a by now familiar formula: frank sexual and emotional revelations presented against a backdrop of burnished interiors. Halter's Sarah is born Sarai, the daughter of one of the most powerful lords of Ur. At the age of 12, she is pledged in marriage to a man she has never met, and despite the finery of her bridal chamber ("Everything was new.... Linen rakutus as smooth as a baby's skin"), she flees in distress. Dragged back to her father's house, she doses herself with an herbal concoction that leaves her barren and is made a priestess of Ishtar, Ur's goddess of war. Six years later, an encounter with her childhood love, the handsome Abram, furnishes her with the chance she's been waiting for: she escapes with him and joins his nomadic tribe. Her contentment is short-lived, because Abram is called by God to leave his tribe and set out for a new land, whereupon the familiar (but freely adapted) Bible story unfolds. The misery Sarah feels at being barren, the indecent love her nephew Lot expresses for her, her encounter with Pharaoh and her quarrel with Hagar, the slave woman who gives Abram a child, shape the novel's second half. Halter isn't afraid to present headstrong Sarah as bitter in her old age, and his complex portrait of the biblical matriarch gives this solid if predictable novel a dash of freshness.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–Halter offers a retelling of the Old Testament story of Abraham and Sarah; the birth of their son, Isaac; and the creation of the Jewish people. Before Sarai can become Sarah, she must first be a teenager. The daughter of a lord of Ur, she is frightened by her first menstrual blood and runs away from an arranged marriage and meets a nomad boy named Abram. Even though they spend only one night together, she feels an intense connection with him, but she cannot imagine a future with someone so different from herself and returns to her father's house. Still frightened of becoming a wife and mother, she purchases herbs that leave her infertile and is dedicated as a Priestess of Ishtar. Years later, the two are reunited and marry. Readers will find the story compelling, especially Sarai's decision to run away from an arranged marriage. As a newly married wife who loves her husband but is infertile, her relationships with other women in the tribe and her subsequent jealousy are believable. This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed Anita Diamant's The Red Tent (St. Martin's, 1997) or who are interested in historical fiction from a feminist perspective.–Maureen L. Hartman, Minneapolis Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Just O.K.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Sarah: A Novel (Hardcover)
While I do agree with the fellow reviewer who found this book hard to finish, I feel as though I should point out one thing. It is fiction written for fictions sake. I highly enjoyed The Red Tent but found The Gilded Chamber boring. With Sarah I just didn't enjoy the writing style. Fiction should be for story telling, if you want fact go for a biblical studies book. Personaly I just want a well told tale, but did not find it in this book. Seemed choppy and hard to follow.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic entertaining historical novel.,
By Bonnie Jo Davis "Loves to read and review books!" (Southern CA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Sarah: A Novel (Hardcover)
I so much enjoyed "Sarah" that I read it in twenty-four hours. The day before I read the "Red Tent". If you are searching for a historically accurate portrayal of the story of Sarah and Abraham you won't find it here. What you will find is an entertaining historical novel focusing on the women in biblical times. The male author does a really good job (contrary to one reviewers opinion) of writing in a famale voice. I felt he understood the trials and tribulations of women at that time very well. This book is about Sarah so to say it would have been better if it had been written about another character is ludicrous. The ongoing debate between reviewers about the relationship between Sarah and Abraham is also ludicrous given that there is no way to know exactly if they were related or not. The Bible is filled with historical inaccuracies and exaggerations as it was written by men who had an agenda of their very own to protect. The point I'm trying to make here is that this is a fictionalized version of the story of Sarah and Abraham. It is enjoyable, fast paced and gives an overview of life at that time. If you are looking for biblical truths you won't find it here and no amount of arguing will change that.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Could have been much better,
By Calliope (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sarah: A Novel (Hardcover)
I was disappointed in the quality of this book. As many other reviewers have stated, the bible is quite clear on the fact that Abraham and Sarah are half siblings. (genesis 20:12, look it up in your family bible or something.) However, the book itself did not meet the standards set by some other excellent biblical fiction. SARAH didn't explain and expand on the story of Sarah and Abraham, it rewrote it. The worst was when Mr. Halter reworded famous biblical dialogue, completely ridding the story of its biblical feel. 'Mr. Halter really focuses on Sarah to an extreme, and I felt like Abraham got left out. Issac wasn't even a character. He doesn't appear to the epilouge, and is shown only as being an object of happiness to Sarah, not as a living child with a personality. The binding of Issac was at the very end, as if the author realized that he had left it out and needed to squeeze it into two pages at the end. (Most of this was Sarah screaming at God about motherhood or something like that...it was rather strange and I only skimmed it to get the general gist.) I would not call this biblical fiction. If you want light, femenist entertainment based loosely on the bible, go ahead and buy it. However, I don't think that the femenist/modern reworked story is worth your money.
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