Received from Pan MacMillan Publishers, Haven, Emma Donoghue's new novel, is set in seventh-century Ireland, where a scholar and priest named Artt one day has a dream instructing him to leave the sinful world behind. Choosing two monks, young Trian and older Cormac, to accompany him, the trio travels down the River Shannon in search of an isolated spot to set up a monastery. Eventually, they reach the Atlantic Ocean and find an impossibly steep, bare and rugged island inhabited by thousands of birds.
Today, this island is known as Skellig Michael. A jagged mass of precipitous rock, the island towers above the Atlantic seven miles off the Kerry coast and seems an unlikely choice for a monastery or any other settlement. I was so intrigued by the setting that I Googled it. To my surprise, it was, in fact, the site of an actual monastic settlement from this period despite being virtually uninhabitable.
A haunting tale, beautifully scribed and somewhat reminiscent of Donoghue’s 2010 bestselling novel Room – about solitary confinement and forced obedience – Haven is about adventure and perseverance in brutal, unforgiving circumstances in a place far removed from humanity where faith and obedience threaten survival.
Cormac’s years of accumulated knowledge and experience and young Trian’s fishing prowess and agility keep the monks alive. However, Artt’s fierce religious commitment and severe authority over his fellows later threaten their very survival. When starvation and disaster stare the trio in the face and Trian falls ill, long-kept secrets are revealed, conflict follows, and intrigue ensues.
Donoghue's gift for compelling storytelling again shines through in Haven; the author has an uncanny ability to manufacture narrative tension, even in a desolate, isolated landscape where prayers and services are the most fun to be had for miles.
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