Sarah: A Peek Into the Life of a Biblical Princess

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May 1, 2001

When 10-year-old princess Sarai draws water for a weary stranger visiting her father?s home, she thinks little of the encounter. True, the man?s poise and kindness strike her, but she knows he will take no notice of a young girl, especially one whose life has been promised to the goddess Asherah. Yet, there is something about the desert prophet, this Abram. Something about him tells her she can trust him; when he promises to return to seek her hand in marriage, she knows that he will. Abram keeps his solemn vow, taking young Sarai to wife. She follows him into the drought-filled wilderness, placing all of her trust in her husband and all of her faith in God.

Thus begins Orson Scott Card?s portrayal of one of the most respected women of the Old Testament. Sarah, the first book in his Women of Genesis series, focuses on the woman who became Abraham?s wife and Isaac?s mother. Card follows the biblical account, using extensive research as well as his rich imagination to fill in the details. Through his pensive account, we can peer into the head of a woman who faced immense difficulties and listen to what she must have thought and felt. As we watch her wrestle with barrenness, anger, jealousy, and fear, we can?t help but see from her perspective. We come away from the novel knowing that not only was Sarah a woman of great faith and virtue, but she was also a human being struggling with problems that we all face.

Card tells the story with beautiful simplicity, wasting little effort on unnecessary details. He takes us through familiar tales?the year Sarah spent in Egypt pretending to be Abraham?s sister; the acquisition of Hagar, the handmaid whom Sarah gives to her husband so that he might produce the promised heir; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; the births of Ishmael and Isaac; and finally, Abraham?s heart-wrenching journey to sacrifice Isaac?intertwining them with the spiritual and emotional conflicts Sarah must have felt as she watched all these things come to pass. The result is a stunning panoramic view of a simple woman who lived a life of courage, putting her trust in God and His prophets.

In presenting Sarah as a real person, as imperfect as any human being, Orson Scott Card not only makes her real to his readers but he also fulfills his own purpose in writing the novel. In the Afterword to Sarah, he explains, ?My main purpose [was] to tell the story of Sarah in such a way as to make her come to life as a real person in the mind of my readers . . . [and to] help readers understand how Sarah might have come to make the choices she made in her life, and why Abraham loved her, and why Isaac honored her so much that when his wife Rebecca came to live with him, it was said that she dwelt in Sarah?s tent?years after Sarah died.? After reading this powerful novel, the reader cannot help but feel as Card does when he says, ?The woman was remarkable . . . a tough, smart, strong, bright woman in an era when women did not show up much in historical records.?

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