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Rachel and Leah
In this third volume of his Women of Genesis series, Orson Scott Card paints a
vivid picture of the intertwined lives of four celebrated women. We meet Leah,
the oldest daughter of Laban, whose "tender eyes" prevent her from fully
participating in the daily work of her nomadic family, and Rachel, 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.
Tracing their lives from childhood to maturity, Card shows how these women
change each other - and are changed again by the holy books that Jacob brings
with him. Ambition, jealousy, fear, and love motivate them as they vie for the
attention of Jacob, heir to the spiritual birthright of Abraham and Isaac.
Faithful to the account in the book of Genesis, the story of Rachel and Leah finds
the reality of these ancient lives. These were not modern women, and their lives
were recorded as part of a holy book. But you know them all the same. The joys
and burdens of a woman's life have not changed that much over the generations;
God touched their lives in ways that will seem familiar to many readers today.
Copyright © 2004 Orson Scott Card
Published by Shadow Mountain
Cover Painting by Frederic, Lord Leighton
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