'In this novel of religious discovery, set in the seventh century, three Irish monks make a fraught journey from their monastery to Great Skellig, a craggy rock formation in the Atlantic that resembles ‘the most gigantic of cathedrals.’ Switching perspectives among the monks, the narrative tracks their escalating discord as they endeavor to construct a new monastic settlement there. The island setting and the characters stayed with me long after I finished reading.”- Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater “ Haven is a beautiful and timely novel about isolation, passion and the conflict between obedience and self-preservation. 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 Lyrical and then visceral, appearing at one moment tranquil and another so intense it’s like being bitten and clawed. 'What a beautiful, intense, blazing, richly-woven yet spartan and unsparing book this is.

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

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

Haven is Donoghue at her strange, unsettling best.'- Maggie O’Farrell, author of Hamnet

It is everything a novel should be: compassionate, unpredictable, and questioning. 'This book kept me up half the night-I was unable to put it down, and read it in one spellbound gulp.

Haven donoghue