Rachel and Leah

(Paperback)

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Tracing their lives from childhood to maturity, Card shows how the women of Genesis change each other-and are changed again by the holy books that Jacob brings with him. Leah is the oldest daughter of Laban, whose "tender eyes" prevent her from fully participating in the daily work of her nomadic family. Rachel is the spoiled younger daughter, the petted and privileged beauty of the family-or so it seems to Leah. There is also Bilhah, an orphan who is not quite a slave but not really a family member, a young woman desperately searching to fit in, and Zilpah, who knows only how to use her beauty to manipulate men as she strives to secure for herself something better than the life of drudgery and servitude into which she has been born. Into the desert camp comes Jacob, a handsome and charismatic kinsman who is clearly destined to be Rachel's husband. But that doesn't prevent the other women from vying for his attention. Ambition, jealousy, fear, and love motivate them as they compete to win the regard of Jacob, heir to the spiritual birthright of Abraham and Isaac.

Reviews

Praise for Sarah

"This series is definitely for those interested in women in the Bible, and in such novels as The Red Tent (by NYT bestseller Anita Diamant)." --Kliatt

"The story moves swiftly, climaxing at several points, such as Abram and Sarai's stay in Egypt when the pharaoh wants to take Sarai as his wife. It is a quick and interesting read....This is an intriguing story ."--Pittsburg Post-Gazette

"This playfully speculative novel succeeds in bringing Sarah's soft-overlooked character into vivid relief."--Publishers Weekly

"This is an inventive and engaging telling of the life of Sarah, the woman who laughed at God's news (that so old a woman would now bear a child)--and who gives as good as she gets throughout both the book of Genesis and Card's novel." --Historical Novel Society

Author Bio

Orson Scott Card is best known for his internationally bestselling science fiction novel Ender's Game and its many sequels. He has also written contemporary thrillers such as Empire and historical novels including the monumental Saints and the Bible-based novels Sarah, Rachel and Leah, and Rebekah.