01927cam a2200301 4500 89425136 TxAuBib 20111026120000.0 110511s2011||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2011018099 9781451617474 hbk. $27.99 145161747X hbk. $27.99 DLC DLC IG# BTCTA YDXCP IAD UPZ TxAuBib Hoffman, Alice. The dovekeepers : a novel / Alice Hoffman. Dove keepers. 1st Scribner hardcover ed. New York : Scribner, 2011. 504 p. : map ; 24 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. 504). In 70 C.E., nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, this is a tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path. Yael's mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. Revka, a village baker's wife, watched the horrifically brutal murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by what they have witnessed. Aziza is a warrior's daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and an expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power. 20111026. Women Israel Fiction. Man-woman relationships Fiction. Identity (Psychology) Fiction. Masada Site (Israel) Siege, 72-73 Fiction. Fiction ordered July 2011.