Review by Anne Day

This book will be so different to anything else you have read this year, which makes it the perfect book club book.

Three men vow to leave the world behind them and start anew. In Seventh-century Ireland, a priest called Artt has a dream telling him to leave the sinful world behind and along with young Trian and older Cormac, he travels down the river Shannon in search of an isolated spot on which to establish a monastery. The three men are daunted by their barren surrounds and wonder what being in a world that seems to be composed only of birds far from all other humanity, what survival will mean? They find a steep bare island and claim it in the name of God. But in such a place, will they attain their goals?

Donoghue’s writing is intense, moving, and very beautiful.

Sarah Moss says; A timely novel about, isolation, passion and the conflict between obedience and self- preservation.

I loved it!

About Emma Donoghue

Born in Dublin in 1969 and now living in Canada, Emma Donoghue is a writer of fiction, history, and drama for radio, stage and screen. She is best known for her international bestseller Room, shortlisted for the Man Booker and Orange Prizes and winner of the Commonwealth (Canada/Caribbean), Rogers Writers' Trust and Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year Awards. Her fiction ranges from contemporary (Stir-fry, Hood, Landing, Touchy Subjects) to historical (Slammerkin, The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits, Life Mask, The Sealed Letter, Astray) to fairy-tale (Kissing the Witch).