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Title details for Sarah by Marek Halter - Available

Sarah

#1 in series

by Marek Halter
Bernadette Dunne
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
The first novel in a dazzling new trilogy about the women of the Old Testament by internationally bestselling author Marek Halter.
The story of Sarah—and of history itself—begins in the cradle of civilization: the Sumerian city-state of Ur, a land of desert heat, towering gardens, and immense wealth. The daughter of a powerful lord, Sarah is raised in great luxury, but balks at the arranged marriage her father has planned for her. The groom is handsome and a nobleman, but on their wedding day, Sarah panics and impulsively flees to the vast, empty marshes outside the city walls. There she meets a young man, Abram, a member of a nomadic tribe of outsiders. Drawn to this exotic stranger, Sarah spends the night with him, but reluctantly returns to her father’s house. But on her return, still desperate to avoid another wedding, she drinks a poisonous potion that will make her barren and thus unfit for marriage.
Many years later, Abram’s people return to Ur, and he discovers that the lost, rebellious girl from the marsh has been transformed into the most splendid and revered woman in Sumeria—the high priestess of the goddess Ishtar. But the memory of their night together has always haunted Sarah, and she gives up her exalted life to join Abram's tribe and follow the one true God, an invisible deity who speaks only to Abram. It is then that her journey truly begins—a journey that holds the key to her remarkable destiny as the mother of nations.
From the great ziggurat of Ishtar and the fertile valleys of Canaan to the bedchamber of the mighty Pharaoh himself, Sarah’s story reveals an ancient world full of beauty, intrigue, and miracles.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Canaan Trilogy

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 9, 2004

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780739353837
      • File size: 276940 KB
      • Duration: 09:36:57

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Listeners will be transfixed by the rich performance of Bernadette Dunne as she transports us to biblical times through the story of Sarah and Abraham. At the novel's outset, we meet Sarah as an elderly woman preparing to die. The story quickly shifts to the earlier time when Sarah reaches womanhood and makes the bold decisions that will alter the course of her life. Dunne embraces the role of Sarah at every moment, revealing her fear and na•veté as a teen, her first feelings of passion toward the young Abraham, and her maturing understanding of the world and her faith in God. As author Marek Halter completes the projected trilogy, this reviewer hopes that Bernadette Dunne will be chosen to resume her role as narrator. K.M.D. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 5, 2004
      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
      , Forecasts, Mar. 15), 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.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Here is a fictionalized story of Sarah and Abraham as told from Sarah's perspective. Beginning with her early life in Ur, Sarai escapes from an unwanted marriage at the age of 12, meets Abram outside the city, drinks a potion to make her sterile, and becomes a priestess to Ishtar--all before she marries Abram and they travel far from Ur at God's direction. In the same vein as Anita Diamant's RED TENT, Halter's novel focuses on the women's view of the biblical world. Kate Burton performs with vigor and emotion, wrapping the listener in this well-known story. Listeners wanting the straight plot of a biblical story will be disappointed as Burton imbues the first-person narration with the passion and heartache of a fully realized story and character. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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