Marek Halter was born in Poland, the son of a printer and a Yiddish poet. Narrowly escaping the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War, he and his parents spent time in Russia and Uzbekistan before emigrating to France. Once in Paris, he studied pantomime alongside Marcel Marceau before embarking on a career as a painter. In the 1970s, he founded the International Committee for a Negotiated Peace Agreement in the Middle East and played a crucial role in the organization of the first official meetings between the Palestinians and Israelis; a role he continues to this day.

Marek Halter speaks ten languages, and is fluent in French, English, German, Russian and Yiddish. He is the author of several internationally acclaimed novels, and is a regular contributor to Die Welt and La Republica. In France, Sarah, Zipporah and most recently Lilah have all been Top Ten Bestsellers.

Her name was Sarah.

Born into a rich and powerful family in Ur, she was - at twelve-years-old - supposed to marry a man chosen by her father. Instead she fled to the great Euphrates River where she was destined to meet a stranger.

His name was Abraham and, although he lived as a member of a poor nomadic tribe, their encounter was enough to convince Sarah that their future lay together.

And so she abandoned everything - wealth, family and status - to follow Abraham and his alien God; a God of whom no one had ever heard; an invisible God who appeared to communicate solely through her husband; a God who, one day, would command Abraham to kill their beloved son in his name, and before whom Sarah would beg for mercy . . .

Set four thousand years ago, against the epic backdrop of the Sumerian cities of Ur and Babylon, this remarkable novel brings a mysterious and ancient world vividly to life through the eyes of a beautiful and passionate woman.

'A moving, beautifully constructed story of love, faith and tragedy' Daily Record