The Dovekeepers

The Dovekeepers is split across four different parts with four different narrators. How does the novel’s narrative structure impact the novel’s characterization and/or its exploration of key themes and ideas?

Shirah observes that women traditionally do not write their knowledge “to make certain it couldn’t be found out and used against them” (402). What is the relationship between women and storytelling in the text? How does it compare to the storytelling traditions more closely associated with the men?

All four of the female protagonists experience romantic love and sexuality in different ways. How are the women different or similar in their romantic experiences? How do these experiences shape their characterization and/or narrative arcs?

Analyze the role of magic and pagan beliefs in the novel. How are these elements depicted? How do they interact with elements of Judaism? What is their wider significance in the text?

Explore the tensions between fate and agency in the text. In what ways do characters embrace or reject agency? How do conceptions of faith influence (or challenge) conceptions of destiny for the characters?

Choose one of the male secondary characters in the novel. How is this character depicted? What is his role and wider significance in the text? In what ways does he conform to, or diverge from, the societal ideals of masculinity within the world of the text?

What role does setting play in the novel? In what ways is the novel’s depiction of the historical Masada accurate? In what ways does the author introduce fictionalized and/or magical realism elements into the setting?

Violence appears in multiple forms in the text—political violence, sexual violence, domestic violence, acts of war. In what ways are these different forms of violence linked to one another in the novel? In what ways do characters valorize, or resist, the use of violence?