The author of a novel about St. Francis of Assisi, turns much further back to write a rich record of Ab-Ram, the shepherd chief who lived near Ur of the Chaldean, but whose search for the one great God led him first to Egypt's land of Goshen, later to Cansan where the Lord spoke to him, and where in his old age the Lord gave him , the son who would be his true heir as his firstborn, Ishmael, was never to be. The author has reconstructed the Biblical story with fidelity and fluency; she lends a sense of actuality to the past and a bygone way of life; and there is color and contrast in her portrayals of Abraham's nephew Lot in Sodom, his brother in Harran, his Egyptian bondswoman, Hagar, the mother of Ishmael. The narrative spans (but is never slowed down by) some 100 of Abraham's 150 years, and the translation- from the Polishis- excellent.