An ambitious and mesmerizing book from your bestselling author of Guidelines of Magic. The Dovekeepers is normally “stunning….Hoffman grounds her expansive, intricately woven, and deepest new book in biblical history, using a devotion and seriousness of purpose” (Entertainment Weekly).

Almost two thousand years ago, nine hundred Jews held away for months against armies of Romans about Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the historic historian Josephus, two ladies and five children survived..LEARNING MUCH MORE about The Dovekeepers: A Novel Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman’s book is a spellbinding tale of 4 extraordinarily strong, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different route. Yael’s mother died in childbirth, and her dad, a specialist assassin, by no means forgave her for this loss of life. Revka, a town baker’s wife, viewed the murder of her daughter by Roman troops; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute with what they have witnessed. Aziza can be a warrior’s daughter, raised as a son, a fearless rider and professional marksman who finds passion using a fellow soldier. Shirah, created in Alexandria, pays in the means of ancient magic and medication, a woman with uncanny insight and power.

The lives of the four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate times of the siege. Each is dovekeepers, and each is also keeping secrets-about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love.