Hardback: 252 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Religion,
Publisher: Picador 2022
Source: Tywyn Public Library
First Sentences: Trian's stomach growls. He's not twenty yet, still growing and always hungry.
Favourite Quote: ““To travel is to turn the pages of the great book of life.”
Review Quote: Brooding, dreamlike . . . it’s in descriptions of the physical world that Donoghue’s prose soars . . . Likewise, among themes that include isolation and devotion, its ecological warnings are its most resonant. ― The Observer
Setting: Skellig Michael, Ireland
Main Characters: Artt, Trian and Cormac
With this latest novel Emma Donoghue has written a story with all the emotional intensity that we now tend to expect from her writing, but this one is so very different from her previous work. The setting for ‘Haven’ is the hostile environment of the island known as Skellig Michael off the coast of Ireland. The island is best known for its Gaelic Monastery, founded between the 6C and 8C and its colonies of gannets, puffins, razorbills and grey seals. The landscape is far from welcoming as it is extremely steep and inhospitable.
Very much character driven as the reader follows the growth and development of the three characters, Artt, Trian and Cormac. The Prior, Artt and his two chosen monks are thanks to a dream of the Prior’s destined to set sail to find a remote, uninhabited island on which to set up a monastery.
A haunting tale of belief and how the men cope, or don’t as the isolation impacts on them.
It was not an easy read but I am glad I persevered, as the author’s ability to depict atmosphere and mood makes it worth the effort.
Skellig Michael
Links to Previous Reviews: Room The Wonder The Pull of the Stars
Précis Courtesy of Goodreads:
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?
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 has Emma Donoghue’s trademark world-building and psychological intensity—but this story is like nothing she has ever written before.
Author Profile:
© Una Roulston 2021.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, in October 1969, she is the youngest of eight children of Frances and Denis Donoghue (the literary critic). She attended Catholic convent schools in Dublin, apart from one eye-opening year in New York at the age of ten. In 1990 she earned a first-class honours BA in English and French from University College Dublin (unfortunately, without learning to actually speak French). She moved to England, and in 1997 received her PhD (on the concept of friendship between men and women in eighteenth-century English fiction) from the University of Cambridge. From the age of 23, she has earned her living as a writer. After years of commuting between England, Ireland, and Canada, in 1998 she settled in London, Ontario, where she lives with Chris Roulston and their son Finn and daughter Una.
Photograph and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites.
Emma Donoghue - Official Website Twitter Profile. Facebook Profile
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