The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
I must confess that until now, I’d never got round to reading any of Alice Hoffman’s work. Shocking really, considering that she’s been recommended to me countless times and that The Dovekeepers is her 23rd novel.
Her other works have been described as a meeting of the mundane and the magical- an appealing combination to anyone who’s a fan of Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Angela Carter as I am.
The Dovekeepers has the magic I expected as typical of Hoffman, but little of the commonplace. It’s a rich historical novel, woven through with spirituality, magic and myth, that draws you into the scorching landscape of Masada.
After the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD, Masada was the site in the Judean desert where many Jews fled to from the Romans. The Dovekeepers tells Hoffman’s imagined story of the siege and the two women and five children who allegedly survived.
Four perspectives are narrated: Yael, whose mother died in childbirth and finds love in difficult times, Revka who lost everyone but her grandsons, Aziza who was raised as a warrior boy and her beautiful mother, Shirah, who practices ancient magic.
Their loves, losses and fight to survive are told to us in language so vivid that you become immersed in a world of dust, bitter tea and baked bread.
I’m sometimes wary of historical fiction, because there can be a certain awkwardness in writing archaic styles of speech. At times I felt that the prose of the narrators was a little heavy and overdone, but on the whole I found the novel so emotionally engrossing because of the voices of these four women.
Their courage and passion in the face of their troubles is a deeply moving portrayal of the strength of female spirit, and may leave you feeling a little emotionally battered when you turn the final pages.
The Dovekeepers was published in October by Simon & Schuster. You can buy it in paperback for £6.97, or for Kindle for £8.99.
Rating: 4/5
Recommended for: Lovers of epic historical fiction, powerful landscapes, tearjerkers, magic and ritual.
Other recommended reading: I’ll be exploring Alice Hoffman’s past works starting with her 1996 novel, Practical Magic. For an account of the siege of Masada, read The Jewish War by Josephus, a Jewish Roman historian.
Alex Rowse
You should also read Seventh Heaven – one of Hoffman’s earliest. It’s utterly brilliant, and a book I return to every once in a while. I think she’s really under-read, so glad to see this review.