I was sent a copy of Akin by Emma Donoghue to read and review by NetGalley.
I really enjoyed this evocative and emotive novel. The story was ultimately about filial relationships, with the central characters being 79 year old Noah and his great nephew, 11 year old Michael. The story takes them to Nice in the south of France, where Noah was born and where he hopes to discover any information he can about some photographs that he believes were taken by his mother during the war. The book is full of details, both scientific and about Nice during German occupation, but this is always relevant and never dry. My favourite thing about this book, however, was the story regarding Noah’s grandfather, photographer Pere Sonne, and the descriptions of his images. I was so captivated by these that I was longing to see the work for myself - unfortunately I had to remind myself that this was fiction and that this body of work does not actually exist!

As the acclaimed author of novels such as Room and The Wonder, I had high hopes for Akin. My only prior experience with her work was her collection of subverted fairytales Kissing the Witch, which I read a couple of months ago and loved. So when I was approved for her new novel, which sounded like a touching, feel-good story of self-discovery, I was intrigued.

Akin follows 79-year-old Noah, whose sister has recently died. Among her possessions, he finds some old photographs taken during World War Two, which he feels must be significant if his sister kept them. He plans a trip to Nice, where he grew up, in an attempt to uncover the significance of the photos and revisit his past. However, a couple of days before he is due to leave, Noah receives a phone call from a social worker who claims that he is the closest competent relative to Michael, an 11-year-old great-nephew and that he must take up temporary guardianship of the boy. So begins Noah and Michael’s journey to the south of France and to the truth about themselves…

When men retire they need projects or they tend to keel over, the first year.’

The truth of the above sentiment seems to be what drives Noah for the entirety of the less-than-riveting plot. He is a former chemistry professor who becomes obsessed with solving the mystery of his mother’s role in the war and the identities of the people in his sister’s photos. As an intelligent man, his mind needs something to mull over and this is probably why he agrees to take on Michael too. He perhaps needs a distraction from his recent bereavement too and deep down, doesn’t really want to be alone.

‘This child was the strangest combination of ignorant and worldly.’

Michael is an interesting character who comes from a very troubled past full of drugs, police and trouble. He is 11 but he seemed more like a teenager to me. I suppose children who come from difficult backgrounds often grow up quicker but I definitely didn’t buy that he was an average 11-year-old. For example, he’s constantly taking selfies. I’m not oblivious to the fact that children as young as three have iPads now but I’m pretty sure that most pre-teens (especially boys) are still much more interested in games and sport than their own face. Maybe I’ve missed the reality on that but I feel like selfies are still definitely a teen thing. He also somehow seems to know where all of the locations in the photos were and was able to speak quite intelligently about them, which I found quite jarring. As a child who has apparently never been to Nice, he appears to have a lot of knowledge that I’m not sure he realistically could have. Michael is incredibly irritating most of the time but that’s probably the most authentic 11-year-old boy thing about him.

The relationship between Noah and Michael becomes quite endearing as the book unfolds. They both have blank spaces in their knowledge of their own pasts and this seems to be what unites them. There's a scene where they're looking at a picture taken at a circus and I took Noah’s explanation of the law of closure as a metaphor for both of their personal situations. When you don’t know the truth, your mind fills in what’s missing -usually inaccurately but it’s all you have until you uncover that truth. Little lessons like this are what ultimately bonds Noah and Michael and watching this develop was definitely my favourite aspect of the book.

Unfortunately the plot itself is very dry and slow. I kept waiting for something big to happen and it never did. There are occasional spots of humour, usually to do with generational misunderstandings or culture clashes, but they are definitely few and far between. From the synopsis, I was expecting a heart-warming, moving story about a childless, cantankerous old man being forced to take on an energetic troublesome child -a narrative that has been done plenty of times in recent years but that is often very amusing and ultimately heartfelt. However, Noah wasn’t quite as spiky as I was expecting and Michael wasn’t quite as boisterous as you’d perhaps expect from a boy of his circumstances. I was actually much more interested in Noah’s dead wife, Joan, who speaks to him intermittently across the void of memory, offering witty retorts and sage advice. Had there been a bit more Joan and a bit less science nerdery, I may have enjoyed it a bit more!

Overall, Akin is a literary inter-generational story that explores the importance of family, love and knowing who you are. Having read other reviews from readers who have read other Emma Donoghue books, I’ve learned that Akin doesn’t hold a torch to her bestselling Room, which I’ve heard nothing but good things about. Seems Akin is a bit of a blip in her bibliography!

A retired chemistry professor, Noah, plans to visit Nice to find the truth behind his mother's stay in France during the second world war. Things are complicated when he feels obliged to take on the temporary guardianship of an 11-year old nephew, Michael, despite never having met him before or had children himself.
The novel then allows man and boy to interact and bring facets of their own life experience to bear on each other with illuminating results.
I enjoyed this novel but didn't feel it was as strong or compelling as Emma Donoghue's bestselling 'Room.' The nephew character felt less-well drawn than the older man and the story didn't grip me as much. Nevertheless it has its pleasures and the writing is never less than engaging, with vivid description and observations.

An unlikely event yet I couldn't put the book down, A heart-felt mystery about history and family, not my usual sort of book but I really did enjoy it. Loved the relationship between Noah and Michael, I even miss them.

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed 'Room' by this author, I went on to read all her other books. They are all quite different, which I liked - not all in the same vein as 'room' and certainly written in a very particular style.

What a fantastic book this was. I love that it centres around an older person (Noah is turning 80) who is still functioning with all his creaks in his body and quirks in his mind (he talks to his dead wife for instance).

Through a series of circumstances, Noah becomes the temporary guardian of his 11 year old great nephew, Michael. This is quite frustrating for a number of reasons. Noah is ready to leave on a trip to his hometown of Nice, France, where he has not been since he was a young child. He has never met Michael and, frankly, is not sure he's ready to take on a young boy. But Michael has nowhere else to go so Noah makes the leap and decides to take Michael with him on the trip.

Michael certainly spices things up as you can imagine. Meanwhile Noah is on the quest to discover the secret of his mother's past. She was the daughter of a very famous photographer who had her own secret life. She sent her son and his father to America at the beginning of WWII and remained at her father's side in France. Noah wants to know why and what she did during that time.

This is a moving book about relationships and the discovery of self. She is such a skilled author to write such varied works. This was a pleasure from beginning to end.

A strong narrative that combines a modern day plotline with a historical mystery: without the need for flashback. It's touching and character-driven, with some fantastic research and exciting plot.

My one quibble was that too much happened inside our main character's head: there was too much coincidental realisation without an external trigger or prompt.

Having said that, I loved the story and the characters, with the gradual unfolding of several mysteries through the course of the book. Michael in particular was a very strong character: so well written and exactly 11 years old. Highly recommended.

This is the story of 80 year old Noah who is asked to temporarily look after his great-nephew whom he has never met. He takes him on the tip to a France that he has already booked. Michael is really quite obnoxious and I’m not really sure why Noah starts to be fond of him but a relationship grows between them while Noah is looking into his mother’s past. He has photos left from his mother’s time in Nice during WWII and he begins to worry that they show that she was a Nazi informant,. In fact, the author is referencing a very different true story which I found very moving but won’t write any spoilers about. I enjoyed this book but wasn’t drawn in as much as I expected.

‘Akin’ by Emma Donoghue tells the story of Noah Selvaggio is a widower and retired chemistry professor born in France and based in New York. He is planning his first visit back to Nice since he was a child in time for his 80th birthday. However, he discovers he has an 11-year-old great-nephew called Michael whose father died from a drug overdose and whose mother is in prison. Noah is the only relative available to take care of Michael and he decides to take him along on his trip of a lifetime.

Donoghue remains best known for her last contemporary novel ‘Room’ which also explored the bonds between an adult and child relationship. The setting of ‘Akin’ is less claustrophobic and the stakes are not quite as high but the bigger generational divide poses interesting challenges for the characters. Michael is often obnoxious, prone to wild exaggeration and bravado but also has bouts of vulnerability as a result of his unstable upbringing. Noah is set in his ways and frequently exasperated by Michael’s behaviour. However, there is also charm in the way they slowly get to know each other and navigate a foreign culture together. In many ways, Noah and Michael’s growing bond is reminiscent of the way Carl and Russell are depicted in the Pixar film ‘Up’.

The book is fairly light on plot which centres on the mystery of some Occupation-era photographs taken by Noah’s mother as he seeks to understand more about his family’s past. The circumstances of Michael’s childhood are also explored sensitively and Donoghue thankfully avoids oversentimentality in this well observed and moving “odd couple” story.

I do think Emma Donoghue is excellent at capturing the voices of her characters and this is no exception. The odd couple here are 79 year old Noah and 11 year old Michael. They have never met but just before Noah flies off to Nice for an 80th birthday treat looking into his family history he is saddled with his great-nephew as the only living relative after Michael's mother is jailed. Both characters are at times annoying and irritating but they are also endearing and comical.

The book is an easy read but also has depth because of the discoveries along the way about family and what connects us and maybe most importantly how we need to see beyond our prejudices to the person underneath. Michael teaches Noah as much as Noah can teach Michael and they come to an understanding slowly but strongly as their relationship develops.

I'd recommend this novel to anyone who is a bit cynical about life and wants to be reassured that there is still good in the world or anyone who just enjoys a good story with proper plotting and a slow driving narrative which takes its time to develop characters. There is history, there is family, there is photography and a lot of pathos. I enjoyed it.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Emma Donoghue is such a talented writer - I loved this book. Like many people, I knew of her writing through Room and whilst Akin is very different, it proves how skilled she is Akin tells the story of Noah, a 79 year old widower living in New York who has planned a trip to the South of France to celebrate his birthday and to research his mother's past, having recently come across some old photos. Unexpectedly he finds himself temporary guardian of his 11 year old great-nephew Michael who joins him on the trip. It is their unlikely relationship which is at the heart of the book, as they learn from each other and discover their similarities as well as reflect on their differences. Both are wrestling with family issues, and Noah's path to unravelling his mother's life provides an element of mystery throughout the book. Donoghue develops the characters beautifully - they are both frustrating and heartwarming in equal measures - and thanks to her knowledge of the South of France she sets the scene with real skill. It is a book that makes you think and the combination of mystery, history and family drama made it a compelling read for me.

What a wonderful read. The relationship between the two main characters is lovely to see - it grows as the story unfurls. Emma Donoghue has written another excellent book and if you loved Room you will love this book.

Akin
Emma Donoghue
Publisher Pan Macmillan
Publication Date: 3/10/19

I loved this story of the unexpected bringing together of an old man and his, previously unknown, great nephew. Circumstances throw them together to piece together a wartime mystery from old photographs. Rich with detail, entertaining and at times intensely moving I found I really cared about both characters. A fantastic read.

I am grateful to the publishers and NetGalley for a preview copy for my honest review.

This story of an old man and a young boy thrown together on holiday could so easily have been mawkish, sentimental, hackneyed. But on the contrary, it is a superbly written voyage of discovery, immensely readable and completely gripping. 

Noah Selvaggio is a widower, a recently retired chemistry professor coming up to his 80th birthday. He had lived in New York since his mother sent him to join his father there in 1942 at the age of 4, but his roots are in Nice where his famous society photographer grandfather lived and worked.  He is planning an 80th birthday visit there, prompted in part by the discovery of some mysterious photographs among his recently deceased sister’s effects which were probably taken by his mother during the war. A few days before he is due to leave he is contacted out of the blue by a social worker into whose charge Noah’s 11-year-old great-nephew Michael has fallen. Michael is the son of Noah’s sister’s troubled junkie son, now dead of an overdose, and Michael’s mother is in prison on a drug-dealing charge. Following the death of Michael’s maternal grandmother, Noah is the only traceable relative left and if he doesn’t agree to look after Michael for a while, Michael will be taken into care. 

The stage is thus set for the childless octogenarian Noah to take Michael to France with him. Michael is brash, permanently hooked into electronic games on his phone, desperate to appear streetwise but otherwise apparently unscarred by his troubled, deprived background in Brooklyn. Noah is resentful at having a small child foisted on him, intruding on his privileged, cushioned, civilised world, and has no clue how to assert his dubious authority over this latchkey child who is addicted to junk food and seems to speak a different language. 

Set against this background is Noah’s mission to investigate the meaning of the photos he has found. Most of them are incomprehensible - a couple sitting on a bench snapped from behind, a shot of children’s legs and feet marching along a road, a circle set between two rectangles, a closed black double door set in a magnificent facade, a woman again shot from behind, a gnarled tree root, and a picture of a smiling child around 4 years old. There are no clues except for initials on the back of the shots featuring people. 

Photography, and the nature of perception, are overriding themes in the novel. Noah is initially appalled at Michael’s refusal to take anything other than comedy shots and silly selfies on his phone, whilst trying to explain to him the principles of composition, light and shade, and the need to plan photographs carefully because of the high cost of film in his grandfather’s day. Yet it is Michael who teaches Noah about reverse image lookup which identifies the building with the black doors as the Nice Excelsior. It is Michael who realises that the landscape picture of the circle and two rectangles is a church bell tower, and that the children whose feet are the focus of another of the photos are carrying suitcases. For all Noah's intellectual superiority, he needs the child's insight, perspective and observational skills on his quest to give a meaning to the pictures.

As the week progresses, Noah and Michael are confronted everywhere with reminders of Nice’s wartime past and the troubled history of occupation, collaboration and resistance. A visit to the local history museum helps identify some of the photo subjects as key Resistance figures, and Noah starts to believe his mother was spying for the Nazis, surveilling them  - why else, he thinks, would all the photos have been taken from behind?  But many questions remain: was the photo of the child taken for ID documents? Who is the lone woman in one of the photos? When Michael recognises that the incomprehensible picture of a circle between two rectangles needs to be turned 180°, and identifies it as a church tower they are walking past, a potentially different explanation of Noah's mother's wartime activities begins to emerge. And as Noah engages with this alien child, he also allows himself to challenge his initial judgement about Michael's parents.

One of the highest compliments I can pay a novel is to classify it as a riveting story, well told. That is certainly the case with this impeccably constructed, enjoyably complex, compulsive tale. Very highly recommended.

Apologies, personal circumstances have changed and I have been unable to read Akin in good time for a review. If this changes in the future I will add a review to Goodreads/Amazon after reading.

I’m a big fan of this author but I’m afraid I wasn’t too impressed with this book.

I kept waiting for something to happen in this book but it didn’t really get going for me. I found it totally unrealistic that a child would get placed with an 80yr old and then actually be allowed to leave the country after knowing each other for 2/3 days.

Really sorry for the negative review but thanks to Netgally for allowing me to read this book.

Noah Selvaggio, a widower and retired chemistry professor, is about to leave New York for Nice, France, on an 80th birthday trip to discover his childhood roots. He expects to travel alone. Except in ‘Akin’ by Emma Donoghue, Noah finds himself in temporary charge of his 11-year old great nephew Michael. The trip to Nice goes ahead, the old man and the boy learn new things about themselves, each other, and about the world.
This is effectively a road trip in a book, more of a ‘holiday trip’. The unlikely travelling companions are quite sparky, irritating each other, each reacting wildly to the other’s strange cultural habits. Donoghue does an excellent job with the Nice setting, effortlessly bringing it alive; the gardens, the architecture, the food, the carnival, the French themselves. I loved the grumpiness that both characters demonstrate. Michael’s weary ‘dude’ when Noah tries to educate him about something – ‘it’s a selfie, dude’, ‘eyebleach, dude’; Noah’s repeated requests that Michael eat a proper meal that includes vegetables. Any adult who is not natural with children and who has spent uncomfortable time with an awkward teenager, will identify with Noah’s dilemma. Michael can be gentle, inquisitive, cocky, snide, exhausting and infuriating. Noah needs frequent naps, prefers education to circuses, but he makes an effort because Michael's father is dead, his mother in prison, and his grandmother has just died. Noah is the nearest relative who can be found. It doesn’t matter that they have never met, and that Noah is 79. Michael is grieving for his grandmother, and the absence of his mother Amber; Noah is grieving for his wife Joan, who pops up occasionally with acid asides when his handling of Michael backfires.
The mismatch between these two males – their ages, education, class, life chances – sounds like a recipe for disaster but the mixture of two opposites causes a chemical reaction involving respect, support, empathy and disagreement about mobile phones. Noah left Nice at the age of four, leaving behind his mother who was caring for her photographer father, to join his father in the USA. When Margot arrived in New York after the war, nothing much was said about the war years. This trip is Noah's chance to find some answers. So as they identify the locations in Margot’s photographs taken in Nice during the war, Noah and Michael attempt to piece together her life. Was she simply her father’s photography assistant, or something else? A member of the Resistance, a forger of documents for Jewish orphans; or a snitch who betrayed her neighbours to save her family. Is there anyone in Nice who can help Noah and Michael find the truth?
This is a slow-burn book about the relationship between an old man and a pre-teen boy from very different worlds, and is told exclusively from the adult viewpoint. It is about families across generations facing difficult choices, taking risks in the hope of helping family, paying the consequences if things don’t work out; and above all, about the similarities. ‘He and this boy were quite alien to each other, he decided. Yet, in an odd way, akin.’
For me, this is another Donoghue hit.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

A compulsive read which is in part a detective story and a coming together of two different age groups.
It is also an excellent insight into the war time experiences of unsung heroes who saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish children from the Death camps of Hitlers’ regime with little regards for their own safety.
Very poignant and just couldn’t put it down

I’ve waited a few days from finishing to write this review because I had - and still have - mixed feelings about the book.
Emma Donoghue is one of my favourite writers so I was thrilled to get an ARC of this story, about a 90year old man, Noah, who suddenly has to care for his 11 year old great nephew Michael after a series of tragedies in the boy’s life. They go off on a trip to France that Noah had already planned and he tries to show Michael where he came from, while learning some truths about his own parents.
It’s a sweet story of family, a collision of generations with a little bit of historical fiction thrown in, but it was missing that little something extra that I usually get from Donoghue’s books and the ending felt a bit flat. However, I did read it fairly quickly - a good sign of the story being engaging! - and was left with a feeling of wanting to know how things turned out so it had more positives than negatives!
3/5

This is only the second of Emma Donoghue's books I've read, but I will most certainly be reading more. This book had me interested from the first few pages, and kept me hooked throughout the whole story. We are first introduced to Noah, an elderly man living in New York, a recently retired Scientist, who is preparing for a trip to Nice, to revisit where he was born and lived for the first few years of his life. As he packs he becomes reflective at this time of life where many of his family members, including his wife have passed away, and so looks forward to revisiting a place where he and his family once lived. Circumstances arise though, and he finds himself taking his great-nephew, Michael, along with him; a family member he has never met before, but with Michael's father recently deceased and his mother incarcerated, it falls to Noel as the most suitable living relative for Michael to be placed with at this time. This tale not only explores Noel's previous life as he travels back to Nice, but travelling with his great-nephew, at just ten years old and Noah approaching 80, it explores how life is seen through opposite ends of a generation and lifetime. Whilst Noah takes a selection of old photo's his mother has passed down of significant times in Nice during the second world war, so Michael experiences this place through the eyes of a young person who whilst being very 'streetwise', has never stepped out of New York City, and lives life through his phone and other social media and games. Whilst Noah becomes pensive during his trip to Nice, so Michael sees the place through his eyes of the modern and younger world. It is this juxtaposition of the two characters that actually helps Noah to learn about his family and find the truth behind the photo's, with Michael's 'modern' and literal views helping him to reflect on his own life and that of his great-nephew. The two characters often clash in their needs and views, but Noah slowly begins to understand the background of Michael and realises that Michael's situation is not that different of some of the history he unveils for himself for his own family in Nice, and so we see him beginning to develop a great empathy towards him. The book is well told, with dialogue that is both realistic and leaves you wanting to know more about the photo's that hold so many clues about Noah's mother's past, and the role she played during the war. It also pays homage to the work of the Marcel Network, a couple who saved 527 children from the holocaust in Nice during the second world war, and so is fictional based on some factual events. This book deservedly gets five stars from myself and my thanks goes to netgalley and Pan MacMillan for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I like everything this author has written and really enjoyed this one, its all about family relationships. Would recommend.