Ask me if I'll go with you to cultivate a desert island with just two friends, and I'll look at you like you're crazy and answer with a very clear "no."

Arrt, the monk who unexpectedly visits the monastery of Cluan Mhic Nois presents such a request to the abbot of the monastery, and, to say the least, tolerates no contradiction. Besides, he saw it in a dream, a vision.

What follows is an incredible story about him and his 2 companions searching for an island that will serve as their new sanctuary. An island that they find, but in all respects it looks more like a bird sanctuary with mainly stone and many, many nests, cries of petrels, cormorants, seagulls and other species, and especially a lot of bird droppings.

Arrt who appoints himself Prior demands unconditional obedience, whether it concerns the journey, the housing, the food, the copying of the Psalter.

While the two monks with him constantly have doubts, they do not dare to express this. Their "prior" probably knows better, and besides, he was sent by God after all.

The story is breathtaking: the characters of the monks, the life of the birds, the sound of the sea, everything comes to life on every page, and slowly the reader is taken to a climax that you did and did not see coming. You can't do anything else than what the young and old monks do in this book: wonder about everything, be amazed by the unexpected demands of the prior, and wait silently and meekly where all this will end. ( )

The story opens in a monastary in the Irish midlands. The abbot is a self-aggrandizing leader seemingly more interested in promoting his status than providing a spiritual setting. The monastery is visited by Artt, a monk of notable learning and reputation. Artt has a vision to establish an isolated sanctuary where he can worship God without the distractions of the world. In a dream he identifies two of the monastery's friars to accompany him: Cormac, an older man only in the priesthood for about a decade and Trian, a young man who was left by his parents at the abbey's doorstep.

They travel down the Shannon to the open sea where off the coast of the mainland they find the Skelling Islands, uninhabited and remote with almost no arable land populated by tens of thousands of birds. Artt deterimines that this is the place where his dream will be realized. Cormac has practical skills which helps them sustain themselves. Artt is less interested in a sustainable way of life than immersing the trio in worship. Despite the imperative of finding ways to shelter themselves and secure food, Artt orders Cormac to build a chapel with the stones on the island. Trian tries to secure food by trapping birds and fishing with scant success. Artt presses Trian into transcribing a manuscript of a Greek bible, a task for which the young man is ill-suited because he is left-handed. Artt becomes increasingly stern, demanding complete obedience from his two colleagues, pushing Trian to spend hours copying. He forbids them to take basic measures to ameliorate their living conditions, such as building rudimentary shelters. While they are aware of and wish to honor their vows of obedience, they experience growing doubts as their survival becomes more perilous. Artt is increasingly fanatical in his pursuit of holiness and in his expectations for their commitment to his demands.

Trian has a secret he takes pains to hide. After he becomes quite ill and needs Artt and Cormac to care for him, they discover that Trian is a hermaphrodite, the reason that his parents abandoned him to the abbey. Just as his parents forsake him, Artt rejects and shuns the boy, the very opposite of Christian compassion. Cormac shows sympathy and kindness to Trian. Ultimately, the conditions on the island, and Artt's increasingly oppressive treatment, drive the two friars to abandon the island.

The story shows how ideals and commitment to a principled way of life can morph into obsession. Artt's vision of surrendering himself completely to the worship of God leads him to cruelty and ill treatment of his accolytes.

The monastary on the Skellings is a real place. Founded in the 6th century, it is known today for its beehive shaped huts where monks lived in isolation from the world. Today it is a world heritage site that can be visited by ferrying from the mainland. I have seen the islands from the land but not been there. ( )

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. ( )