Review of The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman is a compelling, gripping, chilling, absolutely awesome book.  It is one of the best books I’ve ever read.  It is the story of four women, Yael, Revka, Shirah, and Aziza, and the harrowing  paths that brought them to Masada and how their lives intersect.  These women are the dovekeepers at Masada in charge of the hundreds of doves that help sustain life at Masada.

Through detailed description, Alice Hoffman wrote about the months and years of routine daily life at Masada – weaving, baking, making coins, planting, babies being born, and holidays being celebrated – which stood in stark contrast to the fear, desperation, and suffering of the people on Masada.

The only account of Masada was recorded by the early Roman-Jewish historian, Josephus.  After the fall of Jerusalem in the first century CE, 960 Jews fled to Masada, a mountain fortress built by King Herod between 37 and 31 BCE as a refuge for himself.  This magnificent fortress had storage rooms, cisterns, bathhouses, aqueducts, and spectacular mosaics lining the floors and walls of his palace.

For two years, the Jews held out on Masada.  In 73 CE, with Masada being the last Jewish stronghold, Roman governor Flavius Silva and thousands of Roman soldiers with the Tenth Legion, along with thousands of Jewish prisoners of war who were tortured and forced to bring destruction to their own people, formed a seige of Masada.  A wall was built around Masada, and then a ramp was built to reach the fortress.  A battering ram broke down the walls surrounding the fortress, but the Romans were met with a hollow victory.

On the day prior to the breach of the wall, the leader of the Jewish stronghold of Masada, Eleazar ben Ya’ir (the soulmate of Shirah in the novel), declared that his people would not be taken as slaves – beaten and killed by the Romans.  All personal belongings, food, treasures, and remains, were burnt to leave nothing behind. Ten of the Jewish warriors were chosen to end the lives of all on Masada in a mass suicide.  The ten warriors drew lots to choose who among them would kill the rest, with the last warrior killing himself.

According to Josephus, two women and five children survived, and it is they who told the story of Masada -  the story of the Jewish people who were determined to be free in their own land.

Below is an excerpt from Alice Hoffman’s novel, which brings history to life:

The second wall had been breached.  That rough edifice we had built until our hands were ravaged and bleeding, until there was no longer a single tree standing in the field, had cracked under their battering ram, the dirt spilling out, the pliant limbs of the almond trees splitting, turning to dust.  Our people had done all they could to fight the tide of what was to come, the soldiers that would climb through, the bloodshed and the torture and the murder on the day of our greatest feast.  Eleazar came into the plaza.  We were brought there by the sound of the ram’s horn, used to call us to prayer…

“We resolved not to follow the Romans and to follow God alone.  Now the time has come for us to prove our faith.  We cannot disgrace ourselves in the eyes of our Lord, or submit to slavery.  If we fall into Roman hands, it is the end of everything, not only our lives but the life of Zion.  We had the privilege to be the last stronghold, and as God has favored us so, let us return the favor and die nobly as free men…

By daybreak, our enemy will be upon us, and we can hold them back no longer, but we are free to choose to die with honor, in the arms of those we love.  We cannot defeat the Romans in battle here on this earth, but we can deny them a victory…

Let our story bear witness that we perished out of choice, a choice we made at the beginning, to choose death rather than slavery.”

You will be absolutely riveted by this book.  My trip to Israel this summer, with a day trip to Masada of course, will be even more powerful, after reading this book.  I was given The Dovekeepers by Lana right around the holidays.   I can’t remember the last time I read a novel.  It might be before Joshua was born.  That might have been the last time I thought I had time to read a book purely for pleasure.  Maybe I thought I didn’t have the time but somehow I found the time to finish this 500 page book in less than 2 weeks – when the boys were getting a haircut, waiting for a prescription to be filled, during Joshua’s Bar Mitzvah lessons on Tuesdays, waiting for a doctor, before bed, and lots of times and places that I didn’t think I had time.

Now I’m hooked on reading again.  I’m about 2/3 of the way through The Help by Kathryn Stockett, another amazing book that I’ll write about another time.

If you’ve read The Dovekeepers, let me know what you think.