Haven set in Ireland – Emma Donoghue

Submitted: 15th August 2022

Haven in Ireland

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?

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Boarding Pass Information: Haven

Destination : Skelling Michael (Ireland)

Author guide: Emma Donoghue

Genre: historical

Food and drink to accompany: Not much. You’re a monk on a survival mission

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Destination – The island of Skelling Michael, Ireland

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If it’s atmospheric and gripping plot you want then Emma Donoghue is the writer for you. She has taken the real life Skellig Michael which is an UN designated site to showcase her writing in all of its raw and nakedness. Quite the reading experience.

“…..this is the place. the higher up, the closer to heaven. on this islands peaks, our prayers will be halfway to gods ears already.’

This is quite the location. In fact I read it because of the location and I was not disappointed. This is a very realistic and immersive portrayal of a remote island in the irish sea. With its imposing cliffs and jagged stone edges beaten by the violent waves, this is an island which seeps into your consciousness.

The survival plot was almost secondary and I think if you are going into this wanting to find out more about the monks and what they have to do to survive, this may disappoint you. Now, I am not religious and have no idea how monks would have felt arriving on an island with such strong convictions as to why they are there. However, the sense of adventure and wonderment didn’t always come across. I felt I as the reader was more ‘ in awe’ than they were.

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There are lots of lovely moment in this story . In one scene a character carves a musical pipe from a bird bone. Who knew bird fat could be used to make candles. Who even knew birds had body fat given how tiny they are. When it came to the bookbinding I was fascinated. I realise that them building a monastery from scratch was supposed to be the most awe-inspiring thing they did, but the smaller things before were so much more interesting to me!

This was a reading experience akin to a bird swooping down from a great height, seeing such marvels, tiny men in a giant world, the island, the remoteness and a snapshot of a moment in time. Then the bird would fly up again and the novel ended. A little too short and a story which ebbed and flowed but a swooping memory of that short time on a remarkable island.