Aidan Kelly’s performance expresses the complex emotional experiences of three monks who are seeking solitude on a deserted island. Set in seventh-century Ireland, this work of historical fiction follows three monks who feel called by God to make a spiritual haven set apart from the temptations of the rest of the world. As time passes, their leader, Artt, becomes more and more insistent about their calling, while Cormac and Trian slowly fill with doubt. Kelly’s Irish accent takes us to another place and time, and his narration perfectly captures the rising tension as the monks attempt to rid themselves of anxiety and fear while trying to survive with little more than the clothes on their backs. K.D.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

09/05/2022

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. Agent: Kathleen Anderson, Anderson Literary. (Aug.)

Finalist for the Dublin Literary Award
 

"This book kept me up half the night—I was unable to put it down, and read it in one spellbound gulp. It is everything a novel should be: compassionate, unpredictable, and questioning. Haven is Donoghue at her strange, unsettling best."—Maggie O’Farrell, author of Hamnet

“HAVEN. In 7th C, #Ireland, three men set sail to a bird-thick island to find God. #EmmaDonoghue (ROOM) combines pressure-cooker intensity + radical isolation, to stunning effect. What is Divine Grace? Purity of soul? Virtue? Not what they think.” —@MargaretAtwood

"HAVEN creates an eerie, meditative atmosphere that should resonate with anyone willing to think deeply about the blessings and costs of devoting one’s life to a transcendent cause…Donoghue works subtly in the margins, letting these three men evolve into their distinct roles. Their foolish destruction of the island’s resources will resonate with contemporary readers, but she refuses to reduce these characters to symbols of modern exigencies…The effect is transporting, sometimes unsettling and eventually shocking.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“Told with the clarity of a fable, Haven transports us into territories unknown, where ‘fog makes an island of every man.’ Donoghue’s men of the cloth confront challenges that rattle not only their faith in God, but their faith in each other and in the natural world. This is a patient, thoughtful novel with much to say about spirituality, hope, and human failure, and about the miracle of mercy.”—Esi Edugyan, Giller Prize-winning author of Washington Black

"What a beautiful, intense, blazing, richly-woven yet spartan and unsparing book this is. I couldn’t put it down. Lyrical and then visceral, appearing at one moment tranquil and another so intense it’s like being bitten and clawed... It is both a story about three men of God surviving with almost nothing on an island, and another about dictatorship, isolation, true fraternity, love, the nature of faith and man’s place in the natural world."—Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

“Haven is a beautiful and timely novel about isolation, passion and the conflict between obedience and self-preservation. The island setting and the characters stayed with me long after I finished reading.”—Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater

"Donoghue's readers and all lovers of thought-provoking literary fiction will be looking for this quietly dramatic tale."—Sara Johnson, Booklist

"Deliciously claustrophobic...Donoghue (The Wonder; Frog Music) excels at creating isolated atmospheres and examining the dynamic of small casts of characters—as in Room or The Pull of the Stars....Haven may be just one letter away from heaven, but this island community looks less like either and more like a prison as time goes on. A powerful study of religious obsession and confinement, this is one for readers of Matrix and To Paradise."—Shelf Awareness

"Bestselling author Donoghue returns with historical fiction about three monks who travel to a remote island—whose presence came to their leader in a dream—off the coast of Ireland...This is a patient, thoughtful novel with much to say about spirituality, hope, and human failure, and about the miracle of mercy."—Esi Edugyan, The Millions

“A 7th-century ‘Room’…Donoghue wrings plenty of narrative sustenance from her barren landscape… In the drama that unfolds here [she] returns to the radical minimalism of 2010’s ‘Room’. Indeed, the two works share striking formal similarities: two characters struggle to preserve their humanity in utter isolation while appeasing an implacable captor… This is a miniature created with a muted palette, somber in aspect but crowded with quietly beautiful details. And its subject, of course, is a universal one: we’re all stuck on this rock, trying to keep hold of simple moral truths while quietly losing our minds. As poor young Trian puts it, in one of his darkest moments: ‘Even this unbearable life is still sweet.’” —Paraic O’Donnell, The Guardian

"Each new book by Room author Emma Donoghue is cause for celebration. Her latest, Haven, takes place in 7th century Ireland. It’s there that a charismatic leader sets out with two other men to start a novel version of life according to God. Their new home? A remote island whose only population is thousands of birds. Today we know this true-to-life island as Skellig Michael, but it’s through Donoghue’s signature style that the past comes alive.”—BookRiot

"A surprisingly compelling and suspenseful adventure…a marvel of detailed, intimate storytelling…In fact, this short novel is really a parable about the narcissism of the religious fanatic, and the contrasting endurance of human communities. The three monks represent the conflicting religious imperatives of faith versus works in the most vivid way possible, although there’s no doubt which side we’re meant to sympathize with more. The austere beauties of Skellig Michael make the island itself a fourth character, earning this book a place among classics of ecological fiction."—Kristen McDermott, Historical Novel Society

"[Haven’s] setting proves to be as stark and claustrophobic as that of her celebrated ‘Room’…Donoghue excels in creating not just a world but a worldview that is far removed from our own…a bold, thoughtful novel, whose austerity matches its setting.” —Financial Times

"Taking one of her regular breaks from contemporary fiction, Donoghue has left behind none of her ability to spin a compelling story and people it with sharp characterizations....Generating narrative tension from a minimum of action, Donoghue brings the monks’ conflicts to a climax when Trian falls ill and a long-kept secret is revealed. Artt’s bigoted response provokes a confrontation that brings the novel to a satisfying conclusion. Reminiscent of Room (2010) in its portrayal of fraught interactions in a confined space, this medieval excursion lacks its bestselling predecessor’s broad appeal, but the author’s more adventurous fans will appreciate her skilled handling of challenging material.
More fine work from the talented Donoghue."—Kirkus Reviews

"Twenty-first century living got you down? Wish you could disappear, even for a few hours, into an older, simpler, purer way of life? Well, it doesn’t get much purer than an extraordinarily inhospitable island off the west coast of Ireland, inhabited only by a massive colony of puffins and three severely under-resourced seventh century monks. In this brilliantly realized, utterly transporting new novel by Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue (Room, The Wonder), a pious traveling scholar-priest called Artt has a dream telling him to seek out a far-flung island, cut off from the sin and sloth of the modern world, on which to build a monastery...Donoghue’s detailing of the island’s rugged geography and the methodical subsistence work of its dogged new stewards is masterful, almost hypnotic, but it’s the author’s quietly devastating depiction of the conflict between faith and survival, obedience and self-preservation, that powers this extraordinary novel."—LitHub, "Most Anticipated Books of 2022"

"Donoghue's characterizations of the three men, her vivid imagining of the measures they must take to survive, and her beautiful descriptions of the landscape and wildlife — puffins galore — make this book readable even for those who don't care much about medieval Christianity. A strange turn of events having to do with Trian's secret brings the book to its climax. Donoghue is good at endings, as readers of ‘Room’ know, and here again she metes out narrative justice with a firm hand." —Marion Winik, Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Inspired by the true history of an early Christian monastery founded on Ireland’s Skellig Islands, Haven explores the mix of superstition, lore, faith and basic need that accompanies humanity on a mission. As in her hit bestseller, Room, Donoghue’s powers of description expand small, confined spaces until they contain worlds of universal depth…Thoughtful and thought-provoking, Haven captures the gulf that can grow—especially during times of hardship—between what we say we believe and how we live."—Book Page

"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."—Apple Reviews

"This is a powerful read with careful attention paid to balancing natural and historical detail with a broader exploration of faith, madness, survival, and what it means to be human."—Brooklyn Rail

"Donoghue's (The Pull of the Stars, 2020) prose glimmers with images of the pristine natural world, including many varieties of sea birds, but as Artt’s sanctimonious piety increasingly challenges common sense, Cormac and Trian wonder if their vows of obedience will doom them. As always, Donoghue extracts realistic emotions from characters interacting within close quarters and delicately explores the demands of faith. This evocative historical novel also works as a cautionary tale about the dangers of religious control...Donoghue's readers and all lovers of thought-provoking literary fiction will be looking for this quietly dramatic tale."—Booklist

03/01/2022

Trust the protean author of Room and Slammerkin to take us on an unexpected journey. In seventh-century CE Ireland, priest/scholar Artt seeks to abandon the sinful world by hopping into a boat with two monks and sailing out to sea, where they land on a craggy, bird-mobbed island now famously known as Skellig Michael and build a monastery whose remains stand to this day. High adventure and passionate belief; with a 100,000-copy first printing.

Aidan Kelly’s performance expresses the complex emotional experiences of three monks who are seeking solitude on a deserted island. Set in seventh-century Ireland, this work of historical fiction follows three monks who feel called by God to make a spiritual haven set apart from the temptations of the rest of the world. As time passes, their leader, Artt, becomes more and more insistent about their calling, while Cormac and Trian slowly fill with doubt. Kelly’s Irish accent takes us to another place and time, and his narration perfectly captures the rising tension as the monks attempt to rid themselves of anxiety and fear while trying to survive with little more than the clothes on their backs. K.D.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

2022-05-25
Three monks seek refuge from worldly temptation on a remote island off the Irish coast.

Great Skellig, a rocky outcrop with no groundwater and scant vegetation, is hardly a promising place to establish a settlement. This matters not at all to Brother Artt, focused on purity and piety to an extent that’s extreme even by the standards of the early Middle Ages. “Does God not visit those who love him in the wildest wastes?” he asks his two companions, who at first are awed by the holy man who has chosen them to serve him on this mission. Taking one of her regular breaks from contemporary fiction, Donoghue has left behind none of her ability to spin a compelling story and people it with sharp characterizations. Young Trian, given to a monastery by his parents at age 13 for an unnamed defect, grows in confidence on the island and becomes increasingly sullen about the endless copying of sacred manuscripts at the expense of pressing tasks like finding food. Elderly Cormac, who came to the cloistered life after the death of his wife and children, has myriad practical skills and an engaging love of storytelling; Christianity for him seems to be a series of marvelous yarns. But even resourceful Cormac struggles to keep the trio alive as winter approaches and Artt’s demands grow increasingly onerous: They must build an altar before a shelter to sleep in; he forbids trade with nearby islands for desperately needed supplies as a source of sinful contamination. Generating narrative tension from a minimum of action, Donoghue brings the monks’ conflicts to a climax when Trian falls ill and a long-kept secret is revealed. Artt’s bigoted response provokes a confrontation that brings the novel to a satisfying conclusion. Reminiscent of Room (2010) in its portrayal of fraught interactions in a confined space, this medieval excursion lacks its bestselling predecessor’s broad appeal, but the author’s more adventurous fans will appreciate her skilled handling of challenging material.

More fine work from the talented Donoghue.