Publisher Description
An ambitious and mesmerizing novel from the bestselling author of Rules of Magic. 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).
Nearly two thousand years ago, nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. 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. Yael’s mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. 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. Aziza is a warrior’s daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power.
The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets—about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love.
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"What a beautiful novel! And how wonderful to read an account of women and magic in a time when neither was fully accounted. That being said, I worry that this book will be lost in the world of "chic-lit" when it is so much more. It's terrifying and fantastic and horrible and wonderful."
—
Hannah (4 out of 5 stars)
About Alice Hoffman
Alice Hoffman is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including the Practical Magic series and the Oprah’s Book Club selection Here on Earth, among others. Eight of her novels have made the New York Times bestsellers list.
About the Narrators
Aya
Cash is an American actress, the daughter of poet and novelist Kim Addonizio and
Buddhist teacher Eugene Cash, and the granddaughter of Wimbledon champion
Pauline Betz Addie and sportswriter Bob Addie. An alumnus of the San Francisco
School of the Arts as well as the University of Minnesota, she has appeared on
television series such as Brotherhood,
Mercy, and three Law & Order
series. Most recently she has appeared in The
Newsroom, and Martin Scorcese’s The
Wolf of Wall Street.
Jessica
Hecht is an American actress known for her numerous Broadway and television appearances.
She graduated in 1987 from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts and has appeared in
numerous television shows including ER, Seinfeld, Law & Order, Breaking
Bad, and Bored to Death, as well as in films such as Sideways, Kicking and
Screaming, and The Town. She is best known for her recurring role on Friends,
as Susan, the life partner of Ross’ ex-wife, Carol.
Heather Lind
is an actress who has appeared in Boardwalk
Empire, Blue Bloods, The Last Day of August, and other films
and television programs.
Tovah Feldshuh is an icon known for her starring roles as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in Golda’s Balcony, the longest-running one-person show in Broadway history; Irena Gut in Irena’s Vow; the title role in Yentl; her performances in Broadway productions like Cyrano, Lend Me a Tenor, Pippin, and many others; and her television roles as Helena Slomova in the internationally acclaimed miniseries, Holocaust; as hypercritical mom Naomi in Rachel Bloom’s smash hit Crazy Ex-Girlfriend; and tough-as-nails head of Alexandria, Deanna Monroe on AMC’s The Walking Dead.