As their leader, Artt has many opportunities to comfort, to teach, and to strengthen the two men who are sworn to him. In a way, this is a book that’s more about leadership than about religion. I don’t have to know a lot about religion to understand that it’s only as benevolent as the individuals who practice it.ĭonoghue slowly explores the characters of each of the three men, as tensions build in their community of three. The religion practiced in this book felt more cruel than inspirational, but I think that was intended. I said recently in writing about Brideshead Revisited that I’m not the best person to review a book that’s fundamentally about religion, particularly Christianity. Donoghue writes about their daily lives in great detail, from fishing to stonework to gardening, even the creation of pens and ink for the transcription of a religious document. It moves slowly, but it’s the characters’ absolute solitude and reliance on nature and faith that made this story compelling. Those who appreciate a good nature survival story will like this book. The men will have to rely on each other and God, and little else, to survive in a harsh remote wilderness. In his dream, he sees his two companions: Cormac, an older but recent initiate who lost all of his family to the plague and Trian, a young man who was given by his family to the monastery. There is no specific time attached to this story, as the history of the island is somewhat unknown.Īrtt is a celebrated monk who visits a monastery in Ireland and has a dream that he is to set out with two other monks to live their days in the glory of God, far from the land of men. This is the island that was filmed in the recent Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi. Haven tells the story of an island off of Ireland called Skellig Michael, and the earliest monks that might have settled it.

Emma donoghue haven review