The release date for the English version of 'The Dovekeepers' by
Alice Hoffman is Oct 2011. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
The Dovekeepers, an ambitious and captivating book by Alice Hoffman that took five years to write and is set in ancient Israel, is a masterwork of scholarship and creativity.
On Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert, nine hundred Jews resisted Roman soldiers for months in the year 70 CE. The ancient historian Josephus states that just two women and five children made it out alive. Hoffman's book, which is based on this terrible and well-known event, tells the captivating story of four very brave, shrewd, and seductive ladies who arrived in Masada by distinct routes. Yael's father, a skilled assassin, never forgave her mother for her death during delivery. The woman of a rural baker named Revka observed her daughter being brutally murdered by Roman troops; she sends her young grandchildren to Masada, whereupon they go silent as a result of their ordeal. Raised as a guy, Aziza is the daughter of a warrior, a fierce rider, a skilled marksman, and a fallen romantic for a fellow soldier. Born in Alexandria, Shirah is a powerful lady with extraordinary insight into the mysteries of old magic and healing.
During the last days of the siege, the lives of these four multifaceted and fiercely independent women come together. In addition to being dovekeepers, all of them conceal information about their identities, origins, fathers, and romantic partners.