Sarah: A Novel (Canaan Trilogy)

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.

I find books like "Sarah" to be disappointing. When you finish it, you put it down thinking, "That did not enlighten me at all about the true story." The story of Sarah and Abraham is very true yet Halter's version left much to be desired. The author took way too much liberty with the story. For example, until she meets Abram, Sarai is a priestess of a pagan nation. While the possibility of this is present, it's a story-line plot that is highly unbelievable. I hope no one reading this takes it for fact.
Quite adult nature in content. In some places its a page turner, but I wouldn't recommend anyone read this book. It's truely fiction and overall probably a waste of time.

I swear, i expected a lot more from this book. The blurb on the inside cover intrigued me, so i checked it out from the library.

I'm not even going to get into the biblicial inaccuracies here. I'm more concerned with the fact that the store seems to center around Sarah's continued beauty despite the passage of time, almost like God takes her fertility, but lets her keep her beauty. Apparently it's so stunning that even her adopted son tries to force himself on her.

The story was just flat. There was just not enough insight into Abraham and his belief in God, and Sarah's lack of faith in him(as the bible would have it). I did not feel for the character's. The character i did feel for was Hagar, being forced out after Isaac is born.

Just not interesting.

This is a wonderfully written book that gave me a whole new perspective of Sarah. Rather than seeing her via Abraham, as we do in the bible and in various other retellings, Halter gives us Sarah's perspective. Through Sarah's eyes we delve deeper into a possible truth about the biblical times in a way few other authors have dared to attempt. I highly recommend this book for its writing, daringness, creativity and theme.

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.

My personal preference is that the storyline would have more closely followed the biblical version, but I enjoyed this story. Sarah seemed to be, in some ways, portrayed much more selfish than I have always imagined her to be. It did stretch my imagination to see her in other ways. I'm not certain whether I would recommend to others or not...

I am normally a fan of the Biblical Fiction books such as The Red Tent and The Queenmaker but Sarah did not live up to my expectations. Unlike the two books I previously mentioned, Marek Halters writing in Sarah was very choppy which made the story hard to follow. He would skip years at a time between major events in her life, which left me confused and wondering what happened to get us from point A to point B. There are so many good Biblical Fiction books out there, don't waste your time on this one.

I had read the Red Tent and loved it.This book didn't quite live up to that standard, but was interesting fiction nonetheless. I thought the writing a bit simplistic, however it seemed to fit the story.

It's worth a read if you are interested in biblical fiction.

I really enjoyed Sarah for the majority of the book, but I am surprised at the people who call her a heroine or a "partner" to Abraham. In this story, the character of Abraham continually uses his wife to serve himself and his own purposes. Toward the end, he never acknowledges her agony or struggle as being brought on by her love for him in the first place. I felt the story was incomplete and didn't do justice to her struggle.

As aforementioned, this story is best if you suspend all disbelief. It has beautifully written moments, but hurried ones as well (at the end). If biblical fiction appeals to you (as it does to me), this is a nice way to pass the day.

When I picked up this book, I was looking forward to peering more into the personality of Sarah as I had in some of Francine Rivers books and the characters of the bible she wrote of. I had pick up this one and the other 2 of the Canaan Trilogy to read during my recovery from surgery. As I started to read this I thought maybe the author had done some research on the life of Sarah, since I was only familiar with her life after being married to Abraham, and was astonished at his writings of her life as a child. I decided to continue with the book to allow the author to show what he truly knew about scripture and was thankful that I had studied Genesis myself. All I can say is that this is truly a Fiction book and read actual fact on the truth of Abram and Sarai in the Scriptures. Although the author told accounts from the bible and he did show that Abraham did truly love the Lord, there is a lot of things that are twisted in this book. I returned the other 2 books of the series without reading.

I love historical fiction about strong women. This book met my high standard. I was familiar with the biblical story of Sarah and was pleased to have a fictional picture of her in this book. Definately along the lines with " The Red Tent".

I was so disappointed by this book. I read a review somewhere that said if you liked the Red Tent you will love Sarah. I cannot disagree more. The book was just flat. The characters were not well developed and the plot dragged. There was so much made of Sarah's beauty it was daunting to get through the chapters. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

I don't think Marek Halter ever looked at the Bible. (See below for truly great novels on Bible Characters.) He certainly is confused about Sarah. The book starts out with Sarah finding out she is bleeding for the first time and disgusted. Later in the book, Lot (Abraham's nephew ) makes a pass at her (when she is 60 years old)! What a disgrace this book is. It was disgusting and portrays porn scenes almost from the beginning. Recommendation: Read "Sarah" "Rebekah" & "Rachael & Leah" in the "Women of Genesis" series written by Orson Scott Card. Also read "Gods & Kings" by Lynn. N. Austin. This is the first book in her series called 'Chronicles of the Kings" - You will be so blessed by these 5 books. All Lynn Austin's books are truly a blessing and deeply engrossing.

This book is a very interesting insight into one-person's imagination of how life could have been for Sarah and other women of that time. The author is well-versed and knowledgeable in the subject so it turned out well. It is mainly written for clean fiction reading.

If you want historical fact about Sarah and Abraham, read the Bible. The first five books were written by Moses thousands of years ago (Yes, Moses wrote the first five books. He enjoyed the finest education while he was a Prince, a Pharoah's son.) and are historically accurate, as many archaeologists will tell you. Many of them, digging up ruins to prove the Bible wrong, have themselves been proven wrong and have long since become believers in God and converted to Christianity. (See [...]

I was very disappointed in this book. As soon as Abram found 'religion,' he and Sarai were characterized as completely mentally unstable. To me it made Abram someone who hears voices in his head and Sarah's fate witchery.

Worst book ever, could not finish it. First chapter mainly revolved around the 12 yr olds period, to much details on that, secondly feeling a penis getting stiff on a girls back holds no place in a Christian book. These items could have been omitted and I might could have at least read it. As it stands I am very happy I got it thru my library and did not use my money on it.

as much as i was looking up to reading this story, as much as i got disappointed at the display and untrue naration of the story of the prophet Ibrahim and the revelation of the message to him from Allah and his relationship with his wife not to mention how the book massively destructed and faked the true beloved and most sacred character of the prophet Ibrahim and his wife.

the book showed a story with bended and untrue events of the story of the Prophet's life. it also portrayed a very weak, non-honorable and completely non-true and non- fit of a prophet. the descriptions were all on to the sexual relationships of sara and her beauty and the story was all on that which actually doesnt at all support the true very pure and innocent sara (wife of the prophet).

this book has no aim but to distort the events of the story. it doesnt add any value to the person reading, it gave me pain actually because it lacked the truth and it lacked all the true factors that make a story well done.

i dont recomment anyone read this story,,,, may Allah prevents such writers from writing things out of their own creations and imaginations and linking it to realistic stories and to realistic people who are too moral, and too inspiring as leaders to be followed.

May Allah be with us