In what ways does Wynn come to bring the women together? Compare Yael’s relationship with Ben Simon to her relationship with Wynn. The figure of Wynn, “The Man from the North,” who comes to serve the women in the dovecote, is based upon archeological finds at Masada.What did animals mean to the people of this ancient Jewish society, and what specific symbolic forms do they take in the novel? From Yael’s setting free the Romans’ lion, to Shirah’s childhood vision of a fish in the Nile, to the women’s care of the doves, animals are an important component in the book.What does she mean by that? Are there other relationships in the novel that could be described in the same way? Yael describes her relationship with Ben Simon as “a destroying sort of love” (p.Which of these women did you find most appealing, and why? Were you surprised to find you had compassion for characters who were morally complex and often made choices that later caused guilt and sorrow? The novel is split into four principal parts, with each of the main characters-Yael, Revka, Aziza, and Shirah-narrating one section.We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. This reading group guide for The Dovekeepers includes an, discussion questions and a letter from author Alice Hoffman. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets-about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love.
The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power. Aziza is a warrior’s daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Revka, a village baker’s wife, watched the murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by what they have witnessed. Yael’s mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman’s novel is a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Nearly two thousand years ago, nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. The Dovekeepers is “striking….Hoffman grounds her expansive, intricately woven, and deepest new novel in biblical history, with a devotion and seriousness of purpose” ( Entertainment Weekly). An ambitious and mesmerizing novel from the bestselling author of Rules of Magic.
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