Synopses & Reviews
Water from the Well is a journey four thousand years back to the time of Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah. These biblical matriarchs and their fascinating stories come alive in the hands of renowned author Anne Roiphe, whose graceful prose captures the biblical landscape and makes it take flight.
As each story unfolds, we find that the matriarchs had to overcome the same devastating obstacles women face today, such as infertility, lust, abandonment, and uncertainty. Roiphe demonstrates how the lives of Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah helped to lay the foundation of womanhood in the Western world. Though these women lived many years ago, their lives bear a striking resemblance to our own. They suffered the same pressures and pitfalls, enjoyed the same pleasures and activities, and shared the same responsibilities as today's wives, mothers, and daughters. What is more, they managed to cope with betrayal, death, sacrifice, and jealousy while dealing with the emerging reality of a new faith period.
Little of the drama in the Bible is seen from a woman's perspective. Would Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah share the same point of view as contemporary women? With life having changed so drastically from the days of the Bible, what can we really know about the women who appear in one of our most sacred text? In Water from the Well these questions and many others are addressed in a most enriching fashion, allowing us to discover that women played larger roles in biblical history than many care to acknowledge.
Roiphe opens a window onto the distant past and presents it, through the tales of four remarkable women, to the modern reader with relevant observations andallegories. Combining the deep insight of Bruce Feiler with the narrative skill of Antonia Fraser, Roiphe delivers a fascinating work that deftly brings these four biblical matriarchs into our own age.
Review
“Although Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel and Leah lived in biblical times, their experiences speak to women today.” Washington Post Book World
Review
“[A] lovely meditation on the innate power of women” Booklist
Synopsis
Water from the Well takes readers on a journey four thousand years back in time, to the age of the biblical Matriarchs: Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah. Anne Roiphe, author of Fruitful: A Real Mother in the Modern World, brings these key biblical figures to life in this fascinating book.
Roiphe reconstructs daily life as it was lived two thousand years before the birth of Christ. Women grew and harvested wheat, raised animals, wove their own cloth and cared for their families. Like women of today, the women of the Bible dealt with marital problems, fertility issues, and concerns about their social status. And like women today, they were spiritual beings, with their own doubts and challenges. By understanding the role they play in Western history, we learn timeless lessons from Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah; lessons in values, faith and hope in difficult times.
Anne Roiphe is the bestselling author of fourteen books, both fiction and non-fiction. She was shortlisted for the 1996 National Book Award for Fruitful: A Real Mother in a Modern World. Her articles and reviews have appeared in Vogue, Redbook, Glamour, Working Woman and Family Circle. She writes a bi-weekly column for the New York Observer.
"Roiphe writes in a straightforward, no-nonsense style, and with much wisdom. Her book is thoroughly enjoyable, giving the reader much to ponder. Water from the Well is highly recommended."
- Washington Jewish Week
--Booklist
Synopsis
Water from the Well is a journey four thousand years back to the time of Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah. The graceful prose of renowned author Anne Roiphe brilliantly captures these biblical women and makes their fascinating stories come alive.
As each story unfolds, we find that the matriarchs had to overcome the same devastating obstacles women face today—infertility, lust, abandonment, and uncertainty—yet they managed to cope with betrayal, death, sacrifice, and jealousy while dealing with the emerging reality of a new faith. This remarkable volume demonstrates how their lives helped to lay the foundation of womanhood in the Western world. Combining the deep insight of Bruce Feiler with the narrative skill of Antonia Fraser, Anne Roiphe delivers a fascinating work that deftly brings these four biblical matriarchs into our own age.
About the Author
Anne Roiphe's seventeen books include Fruitful, a finalist for the National Book Award. She has written for the New York Times, the New York Observer, Vogue, Elle, Redbook, Parents, and The Guardian, and is a contributing editor to the Jerusalem Report. She lives in New York City.