“Stray beams shard through gaps in the vast sky. The clouds shift, the light tints the Great Skellig brown, then grey, then green, as if God’s nib is inking in an illustration. Land and sea like opposite pages, intricate and bejewelled with colour, in a book laid open for all to read.”

Haven is the twelfth novel by Irish-born Canadian author, Emma Donoghue. During his stay at Cluain Mhic Nois monastery by the River Sionan on the Isle of Hibernia, Artt, a priest, scholar and hermit whose reputation for piety and conversion precedes him, cannot help but notice how poorly many of the monks, even the Abbot, observe their vows of poverty and chastity. He notes their greed, laziness, spite and lust with distaste.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise, then, when the Lord speaks to him in a dream, ordering him to “withdraw from the world. To set out on pilgrimage with two companions, find this island, and found a monastic retreat”

The Abbot is a bit puzzled at just whom the Lord has instructed him to take along: instead of a dozen strong, seasoned men of middle years, he will take only the old lyre player, Cormac with his dented head, and the young red-haired piper, Trian; one practical, one a bit of a dreamer.

Within days they are sailing down the Sionan and out to sea, in search of their deserted island. Indeed by sail and oar, their craft arrives at a pair of skelligs, both inhospitable except to many species of sea birds, the larger deemed by the Prior as their destination. Their meagre supplies are carried to the tiny habitable patch, and a source of water located. Only a single tree, a stunted rowan, adorns this barren place.

Artt insists they do not overload their little boat with unnecessary equipment and provisions, ensuring that, within weeks they run short of supplies and need to improvise for food, fuel, quills and candles. This requires them to be resourceful, although Artt declares that God always provides (inspiration, perhaps? serendipity?) for his devotees.

Trian is filled with wonder as “Swallows wheel and cavort overhead in shrill numbers, the odd little brown flyer dipping low enough to beak an insect off the water between one wingbeat and the next. Now the whole mass forms a spiralling, swirling cloud, speckling then darkening into a winged shape that smears like ink, rips and dissolves again. So many! What can drive them to flock in such urgent numbers, to form one great bird shape of their countless pointed bodies?”

The young monk’s love of nature means that he is disturbed by the amount of bird killing he is required to do to provide food, then fuel and eventually light. He is often hungry. And he misses playing his pipe. Cormac’s pragmatism sees him frustrated every time a suggestion for a useful construction is overridden. Their Prior may be learned, but seems naïve about survival, and spends long hours in silent meditation.

Having vowed obedience to their Prior, Cormac and Trian shelve their doubts about some of Artt’s decisions. When he insists that a stone cross, an altar, a chapel and the copying of religious texts take precedence over food and shelter, one might wonder if his priorities are skewed by his godliness: is the man devoted, mad or a bit of both?

Privation and suffering can be offered up to God, but winter approaches and the birds are departing: can the trio survive?

The triple narrative provides three very different perspectives on the challenges the men face and their thoughts reveals their very human flaws: even holy men can be plagued by vanity and pride, anger and guilt, cruelty, rigid self belief, lack of charity, and rejection of criticism. And doubt, plenty of doubt.

Donoghue’s extensive research into life in the seventh Century is apparent on every page: fascinating details like portable fire, a river vessel, crafting equipment and constructing stone buildings are subtly woven into the narrative. She conveys her era and setting with exquisite descriptive prose. Her imagined establishing of Skellig Michael is brilliant.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Pan Macmillan Picador.