She meets Shirah, her daughters, and Revka, who narrates part two. At Masada, Yael is sent to work in the dovecote, gathering eggs and fertilizer. There too Jachim and Yael begin a tragic love affair. Hoffman's research renders the ancient world real as the group treks into Judea's desert, where they encounter Essenes, search for sustenance and burn under the sun. Yael, her father, and another Sicarii assassin, Jachim ben Simon, and his family flee Jerusalem. It is 70 CE, and the Temple is destroyed. Told in four parts, the first comes from Yael, daughter of Yosef bar Elhanan, a Sicarii Zealot assassin, rejected by her father because of her mother's death in childbirth. This is a feminist tale, a story of strong, intelligent women wedded to destiny by love and sacrifice. Hoffman ( The Red Garden, 2011, etc.) births literature from tragedy: the destruction of Jerusalem's Temple, the siege of Masada and the loss of Zion.
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