In a time when there was nothing but death, we were grateful for anything, and most grateful of all when we awoke to another day. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets-about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love.

The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power. Aziza is a warrior’s daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Revka, a village baker’s wife, watched the murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by what they have witnessed. Yael’s mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman’s novel is a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Nearly two thousand years ago, nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. The Dovekeepers is “striking….Hoffman grounds her expansive, intricately woven, and deepest new novel in biblical history, with a devotion and seriousness of purpose” ( Entertainment Weekly). Visit her website: com.An ambitious and mesmerizing novel from the bestselling author of Rules of Magic. There is Yael, the assassins daughter whose heartbreak leads to her true path in the ruins of the desert Revka, the bakers wife who loses her dearest treasure on earth and yet finds the strength to protect her family Aziza, the warriors beloved who leads a secret life not even those closest to her could imagine and Marit, beautiful witch of Moab, a woman as loyal as she is dangerous.Īlice Hoffman is the author of thirty works of fiction, including Practical Magic, The Red Garden, The Dovekeepers and, most recently, The Museum of Extraordinary Things.

All are dovekeepers, and all are keepers of secrets-about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love. The lives of four sensuous, bold and remarkable women intersect in the year 70AD, in the desperate days of the siege of Masada, when supplies are dwindling and the Romans are drawing near. The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman details from bookadda

The dovekeepers summary