2023/031: The Dovekeepers — Alice Hoffman

If a man sees his brother tied with ropes and dragged down the cobblestone road, does he ever see anything else? If ten men are kept in a room with a lion and only one survives, what does that man become? If a woman with red hair keeps silent, will she ever be able to speak the truth again? [loc. 908]

A novel about the Siege of Masada in 72-73 CE, The Dovekeepers focusses on four women who are drawn together as they care for the doves whose 'leavings' fertilise the gardens and fields of the nigh-impregnable mountain fortress. Yael is the reviled daughter of a master assassin, who crossed the desert with her father and another family after the fall of Jerusalem; Aziza was raised as a boy and taught martial skills; her mother Shirah, a former holy prostitute ('kedeshah'), is reputed to be a witch, and is the lover of Sicarii leader Eleazar ben Ya'ir; Revka, a baker's widow, saw her daughter raped and murdered by Romans. These four care for various children, love their brothers and fathers, burn with passion for unsuitable men, and -- despite their apparent powerlessness -- find ways to change the world around them.

I like and admire Hoffman's writing, but I really struggled with this novel: it is cheerless, bleak and brutal. The women are oppressed, treated with contempt, riddled with guilt or grief or both: though each finds a kind of power of her own, these powers (from Revka's loving care of mute orphans to Shirah's witchcraft) are feared and suppressed by the men of the citadel. And, of course, I knew more or less how the story ended ...

There were some fascinating aspects to The Dovekeepers. Hoffman's depiction of early Judaism was intriguing, full of ritual and mysticism (though it's deemed inaccurate by Jewish readers); the descriptions of magical practice, based on Hoffman's reading of Ancient Jewish Magic: A History by Gideon Bohak, were compelling, though I was sad for the doves. (Discussion of the magical elements here.) And the historical context is clearly explained, though Hoffman sticks to Josephus' account of the siege, and to the earliest archaeological evidence rather than more recent excavations.

Fulfils the ‘Set during a war other than WWI or WWII’ rubric of the 52 books in 2023 challenge: The Dovekeepers is set during the First Jewish-Roman War in 70-73 CE.