When journalists interview novelists, they invariably ask where the idea for a story came from. Almost as invariably, this is the question that novelists dislike most.
American novelist Alice Hoffman is no exception. She talks of how stories "come to me" - and insists that her novels tend to write themselves. However, in the case of her new book, The Dovekeepers, the moment of genesis is clear. It came during her first visit to the ruins at Masada. While touring the site and the museum at Herod's fort, the site of the mass suicide of Jewish fighters making their final stand against the Romans, her emotions took her by surprise.
"I felt very affected by the place - intensely so. When I returned home, I read the historian Josephus's account. I didn't know there were survivors at Masada. As soon as I realised there were survivors, I decided to write the novel."
The book, five years in the making, has been praised by, among others, fellow writer Toni Morrison. It is written through the voices of four women who all made the journey to Masada. The fact that there were women there at all was a surprise to Hoffman. "When I was at the museum and saw artefacts that belonged to these women, I saw there was a tale which hadn't been told. I felt in a strange way like it could have been my grandmother's story. It came very naturally to me."
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