2023/031: The Dovekeepers — Alice Hoffman

2023/031: The Dovekeepers — Alice Hoffman

If a man sees his brother tied with ropes and dragged down the cobblestone road, does he ever see anything else? If ten men are kept in a room with a lion and only one survives, what does that man become? If a woman with red hair keeps silent, will she ever be able to speak the truth again? [loc. 908]

A novel about the Siege of Masada in 72-73 CE, The Dovekeepers focusses on four women who are drawn together as they care for the doves whose 'leavings' fertilise the gardens and fields of the nigh-impregnable mountain fortress. Yael is the reviled daughter of a master assassin, who crossed the desert with her father and another family after the fall of Jerusalem; Aziza was raised as a boy and taught martial skills; her mother Shirah, a former holy prostitute ('kedeshah'), is reputed to be a witch, and is the lover of Sicarii leader Eleazar ben Ya'ir; Revka, a baker's widow, saw her daughter raped and murdered by Romans. These four care for various children, love their brothers and fathers, burn with passion for unsuitable men, and -- despite their apparent powerlessness -- find ways to change the world around them.

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