Haven is a fascinating and immersive story. I really enjoyed the characters and relationship between them. It’s been a long time since I’ve been so emotionally involved in a historical fiction, but the plot moved a little too slowly for me to increase to 4 stars. ( )

3.5 stars. Good exploration of ideas on what it means to find and live your spiritual truth: what is important, what can be done without, and how to be merciful to others and yourself.

I liked this slow cooker, exploring ideas of philosophy and theology- until 14 pages to the end. The author threw away much of what had been built up and seemed to just take a flashy off ramp. Instead of having the monks go through with thoughts and emotions, the author decides that an unnecessary twist and more unnecessary talk needs to lead to the end... disappointing. But glad of the end. ( )

This was close to five stars for me, but I can see why some struggle with it. It is NOT a fast-paced book, but it is the slowness that invites you to experience the intense isolation and bare-bones intensity of the story. Set on a remote "island" (more of a rock) in the Atlantic, Haven is a story about three souls, all of them bound by faith, and how those ties become challenged by religion. The austerity of the backdrop puts the psychological in the foreground, and the end result is compelling. It did not immediately engage me, but I felt it was very worth sticking with it. Donoghue really calls into being the fine threads that might tie together obedience and obsession and how our existence can sometimes sever those same threads to find our own agency and reason to live. ( )

This book was okay. I really didn't care for the main character, Aart. He was kind of a bully, always trying to get his own way. I liked Trian and Cormac. ( )

Wow, what I love about Emma Donoghue is how she just puts you right there, in the story, from page 1. Perceptive character study and exploration of the limits of human endurance and faith. It's also a wonderful ecocritical text that probes how Christian texts have historically primed humans to see ourselves as holding dominion over nature and challenges us to see that nature does not exist purely to serve humankind. Trian, my dude, tree-hugger, I see you. Cormac is also an interesting character who exemplifies how lived experience and empathy will always trump dogma. A seemingly simple story that feels like a fable, very well done!

When I first read the description of this book, I was planning to make lots of Father Ted jokes in my review (I mean, come on! Three priests! On a craggy island! Off the west coast of Ireland!) but it's way too beautiful and haunting to reduce it to a silly gag. Though Artt could surely learn something from Mrs. Doyle: "It doesn't matter what day it is Father. There's always time for a nice cup of tea. Didn't our Lord himself on the cross pause for a nice cup of tea before giving himself up for the world?" ( )