Shirah is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power.

Aziza is a warrior's daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and expert marksman, who finds passion with another soldier. Revka, a village baker's wife, watched the horrifically brutal murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers she brings to Masada her twin grandsons, rendered mute by their own witness. Yael's mother died in childbirth, and her father never forgave her for that death. Based on this tragic historical event, Hoffman weaves a spellbinding tale of four extraordinary, bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom comes to Masada by a different path. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. In 70 C.D., nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on a mountain in the Judean desert, Masada.

Now, in The Dovekeepers, Hoffman delivers her most masterful work yet - one that draws on her passion for mythology, magic, and archaeology and her inimitable understanding of women. The author of such iconic bestsellers as Illumination Night, Practical Magic, Fortune's Daughter, and Oprah's Book Club selection Here on Earth, Alice Hoffman is one of the most popular and memorable writers of her generation. Over five years in the writing, Alice Hoffman's most ambitious and mesmerizing work ever, a triumph of imagination and research set in ancient Israel.

The dovekeepers book