This imaginative reworking of the story of Abraham and Sarah combines myth, rabbinic lore, storytelling, and psychological insight to create new and revealing interpretations of ancient texts. In The Holy Embrace, Abraham repudiates the idols worshipped by his ancestors and accepts God when the Lord selects him as the ambivalent patriarch of His chosen people. But the greatest impediment to God's designs is Abraham's infatuation with his wife, "the most beautiful woman in the world," who is also narcissistic and frigid. How the miracle of their holy embrace is finally accomplished, and how their son Isaac is conceived in accordance with God's command, forms the substance of this profound and witty book.