Alice Hoffman has written over twenty books for adults while also writing quite a few for young adults and children. Her new book is an interesting meld of the genres. She has taken four women during the years of 70–77 C.E. and followed their lives as Jews during the terror of the Roman Empire. The first three are defined, not only in the chapter headings but also in their characters, by the men in their lives. There’s the Assassin’s Daughter who is motherless and hard before her time, the Baker’s Wife who lives through her grandchildren, and the Warrior’s Beloved who is the daughter of the Witch of Moab.

Written in a strangely endearing, descriptive way, each of the women is beaten down by the surrounding brutality of the Romans and their men who love and neglect them. They are good Jewish women and the book is filled with the mysticism of their religion that is unfamiliar to those of us who are not Jewish. What is stunning is watching them unfold as people within their own right. Each of them rebels against the shackles constraining them and tries to beat the odds to survive and flourish in one of the hardest communities.

This tale is endearing yet at times quite graphic in the depiction of what these women survive. A story well worth the read that will stay with you.

[[kate-rockstrom-pic]] Kate Rockstrom is a book lover and Classical Specialist at Readings Carlton. She regularly performs as a flautist as well as writing about music and books, follow her at