The Dovekeepers, Alice Hoffman
The Dovekeepers, Alice Hoffman
61 Rating(s)
List: $34.99 | Sale: $24.50
Club: $17.49

The Dovekeepers

Author: Alice Hoffman

Narrator: Aya Cash, Tovah Feldshuh, Jessica Hecht, Heather Lind

Unabridged: 19 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/04/2011


Synopsis

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.

About Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including The Book of MagicMagic LessonsThe World That We KnewPractical MagicThe Rules of Magic (a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick), the Oprah’s Book Club Selection Here on EarthThe Red GardenThe DovekeepersThe Museum of Extraordinary ThingsThe Marriage of Opposites, and Faithful. She lives near Boston.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kim

There are many reasons why I wouldn’t like this book: 1. I hate feeling dumb. 2. It’s set in Ancient Israel, 70 C.E. to be exact, and the fact that I had to ask what C.E. meant --being a child of B.C and A.D --did not go over well (Refer to #1) 3. It’s set in Ancient Israel and I, shamefully, have abso......more

Goodreads review by Will

We were no different from the doves above us. We could not speak or cry, but when there was no choice we discovered we could fly. It you want a reason, take this: We yearned for our portion of the sky.Masada, the word summons up images, war, Romans, Zealots, slaughter, mass suicide. A place of n......more

Goodreads review by Amy

Never before has a book entranced me the way The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman has. I’ve literally just finished reading this book and I can’t get my mind to settle down. It’s almost as if I’ve ran a race, my adrenaline is pumping and my heart beating a mile a minute, scenes from the book keep going......more

Goodreads review by Anna

The Dovekeepers on its surface sounds like it has the potential to be incredibly moving, and I had high hopes. Yet I found the reading to be more of an exercise in frustration and perseverance. The frustration is largely the result of the book's lack of development, which might sound weird to say ab......more

The Good Stuff * I wish I had the words to express how wonderful this book is. I will be honest if Simon and Schuster hadn't sent it to me for review, I probably wouldn't have picked it up and let me tell you that would have been a shame. This book is haunting and sad but yet so full of hope and of......more