The Dovekeepers

As Shirah notes in the novel, “Even as a small child, I understood that woman had secrets, and that some of these were only to be told to daughters. In this way we were bound together for eternity” (398). Shirah’s words show how secrets and stories passed between women advance culture and memory in the novel, emphasizing the significance of storytelling.

For the female characters, storytelling is especially significant because their histories are often in danger of being subsumed or sidelined. They thus maintain and pass down their identity and values through oral histories, books of magic, and stories. Shirah’s gift of her mother’s book of spells to Yael is an important symbol of this transmission. Although Shirah knows she will die, she tells Yael she must keep the book safe, revealing her desire to keep her legacy and magic culture alive. The women also engage in storytelling through the exchange of personal secrets: Revka confesses her deepest guilt to Shirah, and even Channa admits to Shirah that her actions have been wrong. By pouring their hearts out to each other, the women strengthen their ties of solidarity and support with one another.

Shirah inherits her mother’s stories, spells, and languages. She passes these on not just to Aziza, her biological daughter, but also to Yael, her spiritual successor. Shirah teaches Yael the Hebrew and Greek alphabet, knowing the power of writing and words. Yael’s knowledge of Greek proves essential in getting Silva’s attention, thereby securing her group’s safe passage. Significantly, what Yael tempts Silva with is her memory of the Siege of Masada. It is this memory that is “recorded and written down and sent to Rome” (498), turning Yael into both a storyteller and a historian. Yael notes that each time she and her group tell their story, it gains power: “The story became a cloud, and the cloud a sheet of rain, and rain fell throughout the empire” (498). Yael’s words are a metatextual allusion to Josephus recording the story of Masada’s survivors. In time, this story became a symbol of hope and courage in Jewish culture.

In the last section of the novel, Yael explains that she never told Silva and the Roman scribes the story of her freeing the lion, though her children “know the tale by heart” (500). Yael reserves this secret story for her children because it is a story of courage and survival, the story of “the lion who will have to fight for a land of stones” (500). It is a story pertinent to Yael’s religious beliefs, since she thinks her people will continue to face oppression and persecution. In the story, the lion goes free, and thus, she passes to her children the cultural memory of not just peril, but also courage and hope.