Haven
A Novel
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3.5 • 27 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
FINALIST FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD
In a time of plague and terror, three men abandon their familiar world and set out in a small boat for an island they don’t know exists, with only faith and devotion to guide them
In seventh-century Ireland, a scholar priest named Artt has a dream in which God tells him to leave the sinful world behind. With two monks—young Trian and old Cormac—he rows down the River Shannon in search of an isolated spot in which to found a monastery. Drifting out into the Atlantic, the three men find the impossibly steep, bare island known today as Skellig Michael. In such a place, what will survival mean?
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Three monks set out to establish a holy place on a desolate island in Emma Donoghue’s beautifully crafted historical novel. In medieval Ireland, mystical visions are taken very seriously. So when the learned Artt dreams of establishing a new monastery on an unsettled island, he’s granted permission to take two lesser monks and sets forth down the River Shannon to the sea. Life is far from simple for Artt’s companions, the elderly Cormac and the young Trian. As the three men struggle to survive on the bare rocks of Great Skellig, their faith and obedience are sorely tested. Donoghue magically transports us to seventh-century Ireland, placing us with these very human pilgrims, for whom life is a mystery and every victory—from making a fire to growing food—is hard won. Haven is a stunning book, an adventure that draws us into the human heart.
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.
