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Tuesday, October 04, 2022

Haven (2022) by Emma Donoghue


Book Review
Haven (2022)
by Emma Donoghue

    Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue is best known for her 2010 novel Room, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2010 and inspired the 2015 film of the same name which had some box office success and really launched actress Brie Larson into stardom.   Haven caught my eye because of the plot summary:  Three Irish monks living in the early middle ages set off to a rocky island off the coast of Ireland (a skellig) to create a monastery in the middle of the ocean.  Skellig's themselves have been having a bit of a moment since they were featured as Luke Skywalker's retreat in the most recent series of Star Wars films.   I was attracted to the storyline and the locale.

   Donoghue crafts an interesting narrative of survival and conflict in harsh surroundings.  She also throws in an unexpected twist beyond the "will everyone survive" tension that motivates any plot involving people trying to live on a skellig without access to the outside world for trade goods.  Listening to the Audiobook, the physical descriptions of the skellig sent me racing to Google Maps to look up the locations which inspired the book.

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