Haven
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3.2 • 5 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
The hugely anticipated novel from the internationally bestselling author of The Pull of the Stars and Room
‘Beautiful and timely’ - Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater
Three men vow to leave the world behind them. They set out in a small boat for an island their leader has seen in a dream, with only faith to guide them. What they find is the extraordinary island now known as Skellig Michael. Haven, Emma Donoghue’s gripping and moving novel, has her trademark psychological intensity – but this story is like nothing she has ever written before.
In seventh-century Ireland, a scholar and priest called Artt has a dream telling him to leave the sinful world behind. Taking two monks – young Trian and old Cormac – he rows down the river Shannon in search of an isolated spot on which to found a monastery. Drifting out into the Atlantic, the three men find an impossibly steep, bare island, inhabited by tens of thousands of birds, and claim it for God. In such a place, what will survival mean?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Donoghue (The Pull of the Stars) returns with an intricate slow-burn about three monks who start a monastery on an isolated island in seventh-century Ireland. As it opens, priest Artt dreams about an island where he believes he's to pilgrimage with two others to found a monastic retreat. He picks the old monk Cormac, a skilled builder and gardener, and the young monk Trian, a piper, and both men pledge their lives to him. They set off on a small boat in search of the haven, and on the fifth day they see two islands jutting from the water. They land on the bigger one, a steep cathedral of rock possessed by an army of birds. There, high on a plateau, Artt, the future prior, decides they will camp then build, soon putting Cormac to work on a great cross and Trian on copying the Bible. As the prior turns a deaf ear to the others' concerns about dwindling supplies, tensions rise over his monastic demands and their narrowing chances of survival as summer dips into fall. The slow pacing tends to wear, but the narrative picks up toward the end with a surprising twist. Patient readers will be rewarded with a thoughtful tale of faith, isolation, and blind obedience.
Customer Reviews
Medieval Irish monk-y business
Author
Irish-Canadian. Grew up in Ireland, did her PhD in the UK, now lives in Canada. Best known for ‘Room’ (2010), which has been made into a a movie and a play as well. Has written a number of historical novels which have received critical praise but failed to reproduce the sales of her debut. The Pull of The Stars (2020), based around a nurse in a Dublin hospital during the Spanish flu pandemic, was the best of them IMO.
Plot
The setting is 7th century Ireland. Not my idea of a happy place. A small group of monks (three to be exact) set out up the Shannon river in a boat in search of a place to build a new monastery. They find it on a small island inhabited by puffins. (The Great Skellig sounds more like a Jewish vaudeville act to me.) There’s mucho starvation and suffering but, hey, they’re monks. They’re into that stuff. There’s also a big revelation about one of them that came out of left field (or did for me). Not a lot happens otherwise. Except to the puffins.
Writing
Ms D writes beautifully. Here, she employs a dreamy Celtic style appropriate to the setting. Did I mention not a lot happens?