FINALIST FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD

In a time of plague and terror, three men abandon their familiar world and set out in a small boat for an island they don’t know exists, with only faith and devotion to guide them

In seventh-century Ireland, a scholar priest named Artt has a dream in which God tells him to leave the sinful world behind. With two monks—young Trian and old Cormac—he rows down the River Shannon in search of an isolated spot in which to found a monastery. Drifting out into the Atlantic, the three men find the impossibly steep, bare island known today as Skellig Michael. In such a place, what will survival mean?

EMMA DONOGHUE was born in Dublin and lived in England for many years before moving to Canada. She writes in many genres, including theatre, radio drama and literary history, but is best known for her fiction, both historical (Slammerkin, The Sealed Letter, Astray, Frog Music) and contemporary (Stir-Fry, Hood, Landing, Touchy Subjects). Her seventh novel, Room, won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Canada and the Caribbean region) and was shortlisted for the Man Booker and Orange Prizes. It sold more than two million copies. Donoghue scripted the film adaptation, a Canadian-Irish film by Lenny Abrahamson starring Brie Larson, which was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. And her most recent novel, The Wonder, was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2016.

Emma Donoghue's profile page

• The New Yorker Best Books of the Year

“Combines pressure-cooker intensity + radical isolation, to stunning effect.” — @MargaretAtwood

“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, author of Washington Black

“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 Ghost Wall

"[A] moving tale with a pervading sense of unease that grips you till the last page.” — Globe and Mail (Toronto)

"Haven contains subtle, vibrating tension." — Toronto Star

“Donoghue conjures the same magic [as Room] with her latest novel, Haven.” — Reader's Digest Canada

“It’s clear there’s no century in the history of this world that couldn’t be teased into a compelling read by author Emma Donoghue." — London Free Press