A beautiful historical fiction novel that immerses the reader in the lives of very strong, independent women who survived life because of their knowledge, love and strength. A hard book to put down!

Hoffman departs from her usual fare in this book - obviously a labor of love. It is based on a true event and yes, history says that there were people alive to tell of the events. The story follows four women's lives as they come to an intersection at Masada. One thing I found helpful was going to AliceHoffman.com and clicking on this book. She provides a glossary of terms that give definitions or backgrounds for the many unfamiliar Hebrew words in the book. I also found it helpful to google pictures of the location. The location is almost a 5th main character in the book - the grueling summer months of heat and dryness figure prominantly into telling the story. Hoffman must take liberties with the narrative, since no one knows for sure what happened but the result is a captivating story with the lives of those holed up gleaming off the pages. A definitely good book club choice

I loved this book. I had never read anything about this battle or time and found Alice Hoffman wove so much historical detail and imagery of the time and place into an equally engaging story. Excellent character development and fantastic book club/ discussion choice. Highly recommend.

Historical fiction based on the Masada from the women's perspective. Love, hate, jealously, friendship and sexual awakenings

I learned about the culture while enjoying the poignant story.

Everyone in our book club was glad they read this book, but most thought it was too long and convoluted. The thing that made this book gripping was the last 100 or so pages and the fact that it is based upon a true even, controversial as it may be.

All I can say is Alice Hoffman did an outstanding job writing this ancient story. The book is broken into 4 parts and a conclusion, just know this from the beginning so it is easier to understand the flow of the book. I did notice a bit of repetition but set that aside and envision this life of 4 women in 70 c.e. The barbaric life that surrounded this region during the time of the Roman Empire and before shows the ugly side of humanity which still invades our society today. If you seek historical fiction, I I would recommend this book.

It was so mind numbingly slow. Why the question is just why????