The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

This novel does not disappoint.  I've always enjoyed the history of the 'Biblical' times.  Whether I'm reading The Red Tent or Testament, I remained glued to the pages.  The Dovekeepers is a complicated story of four women who each tell their story of how they came to be at the Jerusalem fortress, trying to withstand the Roman assault.  There are potions, spells, prayers, incantations, hard work, hunger,  and doomed love affairs.  Alice Hoffman does an excellent job of revealing the day-to-day life of the times.  Weaving, cooking, childbirth, and love all reveal a world of honour, harness, homelessness, This is not a story of action.  The lives of the women are chronicled with patience, as are the lives of women.  The women in the novel learn to share, support, and love one another as the shared adversity of women is recognized in a way that binds them and their children together.