Hannah "knows" her destiny involves a man she will meet in an unusual way. Elkanah seduces Hannah's friend the young naive Prinah. When Hannah meets Elkanah for the first time at his wedding to Prinah she "knows" that he is her destiny man. Hannah and Elkanah marry shortly after that. Than seven months after her wedding to Elkanah, Prinah gives birth to her first child.

I disliked the main characters. Hannah is extremely beautiful and knows it. She never doubts she can have any man she wants. At her friends wedding she decides the groom is the man for her. She doesn't care how much that will hurt her friend. She doesn't listen to her mother Who warns her about what it means to be the second wife. She want Elkanah to divorce her friend. She realizes the situation is of her own making when she prays for a child.

Elkanah is a cheater who continues to take advantage of the young girls who work for him. He treats Prinah horribly. Yes he really loves Hannah, but that doesn't excuse the rest of his behavior.

Prinah is the most sympathetic of the trio. But her relationships are too much about sex. Elkanah can't stay away because sex with her is so great. Her taking a lover is understandable given the way her husband treats her the rest of the time. It is easy to see the attraction of a man who listens to her and cares about her. As a mature woman she becomes this incredibly sexy woman.

Samuel is an all knowing mystic.

I don't like the choice of the Author to have Samuel attracted to Prinah. I thought Prinah's attraction over done. The Author makes Prinah and Hannah the same age. But all we know from the Bible is that Prinah was the 1st wife, Hannah the 2nd. As the 1st wife Prinah could have been significantly older than Hannah.The Author's mote that "I found it suggestive that although Samuel had grown up in the Temple and afterward became a judge in another town, and thus had not lived in his father's town of Ramathaim/Ramah since he was and infant, for no apparent reason, he subsequently moved back and made his home there." I'm sorry but there is a big leap between moving to his father's town to being in love with his father's wife.

She brings out a son being attracted to his fathers' wives or concubines is not unheard of. One of the examples is Adonijah wishes to take his father's concubine, Abishag as his wife. But Solomon was convinced that Adonijah’s request was not due alone to Abishag’s beauty but, rather, indicated a subtle effort to strengthen Adonijah’s claim to the throne


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Hannah and her childhood best friend, Pninah, marry the same man, Elkanah, and become bitter rivals. After many childless years, Hannah goes on to have a son, Samuel, who later becomes a prophet. Pninah, knowing her husband does not love her, but instead loves Hannah, finds another man to love.

The chapters are split, alternating between Hannah’s story and Pninah’s. I thought it was really good, but I must admit I did find Pninah’s story more interesting than Hannah’s, though overall I liked it enough to rate it 4 stars. I wasn’t as interested in the section of the book when the wars started, but it was only a brief section. I had been wondering about the title of the book, given that it is really only half Hannah’s story, but I guess the reason is because apparently there is something in the Bible by that title? I always appreciate having a historical note for any historical fiction that I read (which this one had). ( )

Hannah and Pninah are childhood friends. Pninah meets and falls in love with Elkanah and they decide to get married. At the wedding, Hannah and Elkanah who are seeing each other for the first time, have an instant attraction, so after a time Elkanah takes Hannah as his second wife. This seems to end the lifelong friendship of the two woman, Pninah can not believe that her closest friend would become involved with her husband.

Pninah has no problem bearing children, but Hannah is just the opposite. After trying for years, she goes to the temple and begs God to give her a child. She also says that if she has a son, she will give him as a sacrifice. Shortly after she becomes pregnant, she delivers a son she names Samuel, and when he is 3 years of age she takes him to be raised at the temple.

The rest of the story is about the years following. When I first started reading I thought the book would be Hannah telling the story, but the chapters alternated from Hannah to Pninah. I really enjoyed this book, it kept me eager to find out what was going to happen next. I've read many reviews from people who did not like The Song Of Hannah because of some of the relationships these people had, and I agree some of the book was to graphic, but you have to remember that this is a work of fiction about non fictional people. Some of it is factual events from the Bible, the rest is from the mind of the author. I liked this book and plan on reading more from the author. ( )