Alice Hoffman, The Dovekeepers
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An epic feminist retelling of a first-century siege on Israel
Reaching back to the first century, Hoffman offers a feminist retelling of the Roman siege of Masada — a grisly event that was documented by a single contemporary source. Each section of the novel is told by one of her four narrators, all women who are part of the band of religious zealots led by Eleazar ben Ya’ir that take up residence in Herod’s old fortress. There’s Yael, daughter of an assassin, who has an affair with a soldier and gives birth out of wedlock in the desert. There’s the “witch” of Moab, Shirah, a medicine woman who is romantically involved with ben Ya’ir, although he’s married to someone else. Shirah’s daughter Aziza poses as a man so she can take her brother’s place in the war. Finally, there’s Revka, who has lost her daughter to Roman soldiers and is now raising her two mute grandchildren. The women’s stories eventually interlock as they each work in the fortress dovecote, producing fertilizer for the desert soil. As the final act of the battle with its dramatic mass suicide draws near, each must fight her individual struggle for independence and self-definition. Hoffman’s novel is skillfully researched, poetically imagined, and epic in scope.
