The rich meat's gone down all too soon, and then he lets himself eat half the round of three-day-old bread, saturated with savoury juice. He makes himself chew slowly, and rations out his ale in sips. Then Trian spoons what's left onto his own trencher. Trian gestures to his neighbour to help himself to roast swan and onions from their platter. The Abbot's led the congregation in saying grace in Latin, and is eating already. Also half a dozen strangers, come to Cluain Mhic Nóis to study with one of the celebrated teachers, or for a few months or weeks of respite from the grasping world. The first fast-day after Easter, and the hall is crammed with more than thirty monks and their Abbot, as well as the families who serve them and work the land.Įven the Abbess is here, though not her nuns, who dine in their quarters at the other end of the double monastery. He's not twenty yet, still growing, and always hungry. 'It's a sort of family adventure story in that it's about three very different characters trying to pull together to survive in circumstances so strange that at times it reads like sci-fi.' 'Getting into the head of zealous Christian monks in 7th century Ireland - a country with no towns or money - took all the research and imagination I could muster,' Donoghue said.

She noted the story was the 'perfect escape from the modern world' during the pandemic. Larson won the Academy Award for best actress for the role.ĭonoghue told CBC Books that writing Haven was 'definitely the strangest trip' she has been on, which is saying something for a writer who has penned stories set in a wide array of eras and locales - from 18th century London, to France in the Second World War, to a single room. Room has been adapted into a theatrical play and film starring Brie Larson. The CBC Books fall reading list: 30 Canadian books to read now The Pull of the Stars explored the impact of the Spanish flu pandemic on marginalized people and was prescient during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bestselling book was longlisted for the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize and shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award. Her books include the novels Landing, Room, Frog Music, The Wonder and the children's book The Lotterys Plus One.ĭonoghue's most recent novel, The Pull of the Stars, was released in July 2020.

Born in Dublin in 1969, she now lives in London, Ont., with her family.

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