"Once in a lifetime a book may come to a writer as an unexpected gift. The Dovekeepers
is such a book for me. It was a gift from my great-great grandmothers, the women of an
ancient Israel who first spoke to me when I visited the mountain fortress of Masada. In
telling their story of loss and love, I've told my own story as well. After writing for 35 years,
after more than 30 works of fiction, I was given the story I was meant to tell."
"I was initially inspired by my first visit to Masada, a spiritual experience so intense and
moving I felt as though the lives that had been led there 2,000 years earlier were utterly
fresh & relevant. The tragic events of the past and the extraordinary sacrifices that were
made in this fortress seemed to be present all around me. It was as if those who had lived
there, & died there, had passed by only hours before. The temperature was well over a
100 degrees & the horizon was shaky with blue heat. In that great silence, standing inside
the mystery that is the past, surrounded by the sorrow of the many deaths that occurred
there, I also felt surrounded by life & the stories of the women who had been there.
In that moment, The Dovekeepers came to life as well."
The Dovekeepers is our next discussion book - April 5th.
Background: When Jerusalem fell in 70 A.D., a group of Jews traveled through the desert
to a giant rock plateau ringed by steep cliffs, a place called Masada a mountain
fortress in the Judean desert. A century earlier King Herod had built this fortress. Here,
900 Jewish men, women and children became a community for several years before the
Romans attacked; and, after defeat the inhabitants chose mass suicide, escaping murder
or enslavement by the Romans. The one existing historical account by Titus Josephus Flavius
tells of the survival of 2 women and 5 children, who told their story to the Romans and the world.
Hoffman also read interpretations of the archaeological evidence unearthed at Masada,
she spent 5 years researching and writing The Dovekeepers.
Did you know that Hoffman's son is an archaeology student? Hoffman read about the
era and visited the Masada Museum, where she found a plaid tartan fabric which she
used in The Dovekeepers. "When I saw the artifacts that belonged to the real people who
lived there - you know, the makeup, the makeup palettes, the amulets, the shoes - it really
felt alive to me."
The book follows 4 women and their fight to survive after Jerusalem fell. The 4 women are:
- the Assassin's Daughter
- the Baker's Wife
- the Warrior's Daughter
- the Witch of Moab.
writing the book that I really realized that they're all parts of me, that if I divided myself
into quarters, it would be these 4 women."
Personally, I'm not looking forward to the ending of this book. I know Hoffman will cause me
to feel and reach for the Kleenex box. I love my Disney endings but sometimes life
doesn't play out like a fairy tale; and book group gets me out of my comfort zone,
exposing me to books that I would never commit to otherwise.
Read The Dovekeepers and join us for a lively discussion on April 5th at 10 AM.