Young Aziza was raised as a warrior she wants nothing more than to fight alongside the men in this last stand against the Romans. Revka, the baker’s wife, lost her husband and daughter at the hands of Roman soldiers and is now determined to protect her motherless grandsons. Red-haired Yael, the daughter of a master assassin, becomes pregnant with the child of her father’s colleague. Hoffman retells this ancient story through the voices of four unique women, each of whom arrived at Masada and worked in the dovecotes-caring for the birds, collecting eggs and gathering fertilizer. For The Dovekeepers, Hoffman was inspired by a trip to Masada and research into the classical world, including the work of Josephus, the Roman-Jewish historian who recorded that the only survivors of this tragedy were two women and five children. But instead of the safe suburbs of New England, we have been transported back to the first century at Masada, the mountain fortress south of Jerusalem where 900 Jews held out against the Romans before committing mass suicide rather than submit to foreign rule. Herbs and potions, love charms and secrets, the complex intimacies between mothers and daughters: It’s clear from the outset of The Dovekeepers that we are firmly in Alice Hoffman territory.
0 kommentar(er)
