The novel is split into four principal parts, with each of the main characters - Yael, Revka, Aziza, and Shirah - narrating one section. Hoffman is painstakingly thorough, crafting detailed accounts of each woman’s life and infusing them with a timeless sensibility that resonates with a modern audience.ġ. Together, they struggle to leave the past behind and forge a new society.
Her daughter, Aziza, was fathered by a warrior and raised as a boy, enabling her superlative skills as a rider and marksman. Shirah is an extraordinarily beautiful mystic, feared and revered for her healing powers. Revka, a sharp-tongued grandmother, is quietly reeling from the brutal murder of her daughter as she cares for her grandsons. Hoffman builds upon his ancient account, using it as a starting point to tell the stories of four women whose divergent paths brought them to Masada.Ĭhronicling the four years during and after the fall of Jerusalem, the novel opens with the tragic story of Yael, a redhead neglected and abused by her father, who never forgave her for her mother’s death in childbirth. Two women and five children survived the massacre, according to first-century Jewish historian Josephus. It’s not easy to make characters living in 70 C.E., fighting the Romans on Masada, breathe on the page, but Alice Hoffman’s masterpiece succeeds.
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