Beginning ~ with the fall of Jerusalem

The Dovekeepers ~ by Alice Hoffman, 2011, fiction (Israel)

We had been wandering for so long I forgot what it was like to live within walls or sleep through the night.  In that time I lost all I might have possessed if Jerusalem had not fallen:  a husband, a family, a future of my own.  My girlhood disappeared in the desert.

Someone (in a Facebook group I'm in) posted this question:  "What book has impacted you these past few years?"  One woman wrote simply, "The Dovekeepers."  So I moved it to the top of my TBR stack.

Masada today (click to enlarge photo)

This book is not set in modern Israel, but in 70 CE, when nine hundred Jews held out for months against Roman armies on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert.  The ancient historian Josephus says two women and five children survived.  This novel recounts a tale of four bold and resourceful women, who are all dovekeepers.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.