Emma Donoghue writes beautifully, she pulls you into the worlds of her characters and her descriptions are so thorough and detailed that you can almost believe you have stood alongside the characters. I enjoyed the relationship development between Micheal and Noah, and the photo mystery was an added bonus to unfold as I read.

The blurb in this book sounded just up my street and having read Emma Donoghue before I was sure I would love it. Sadly it is so drawn out and slow. I struggled to relate to either Noel or Michael so couldn't get more than 50% of the book read in a week. I would normally race through a book this size in a day or 2 but couldn't.

Let us begin with how awesome the integration of the photos was. They could have all been in the beginning, or a plate section, or chucked at the end, but no… Their placement is instead a plot device and that’s just such a great detail. Though trying, as I definitely did go looking for them and could have cheated myself out of the reveal.
This one didn’t grab me in the same way that The Wonder did – I suppose that might be because I find an 79-year-old man and an 11-year-old boy less relatable, so fair enough. But, it was nevertheless thoughtful and engaging and I really liked the way the book wrapped up…
Noah, a retiree, ends up saddled with temporary guardianship of his great-nephew, Michael, right before he is scheduled to return to his birthplace, Nice, France, for the first time since pre-WWII. Once there, together they solve something of a family mystery – or two – and try not to kill each other in frustration along the way.
What the book does well is not romanticizing their relationship: these people are blood, but they are also strangers and neither are exactly easy to get on with. There are fights and snipes and Michael is an 11-year-old boy which is so annoying I could barely handle it (let alone add in his emotional baggage-backstory).
What I was less sold on were the mysteries and the deus ex machina answers that appear along the way. They weren’t all that clunky, but a few were. For me, the relationship core of the story was the most compelling part of the book and it was plenty successful to make anything else forgiveable.
My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the arc to review.

This book was a slog. Long and winding, it lacks any real action. At one point I counted 20% of the book with zero happening. I’m okay with that as long as character development is strong, but IMO the characters were weak (over simplified personalities) and the relationship between the two was predictable and therefore a bit dull. There was also only really two characters, with all dialogue happening between those two, which got a bit annoying. I’m really disappointed as I was a huge fan of Room, and this book just feels a bit safe in comparison. It started strong as well, with Donoghue making reference to the issues faced by women in prison and LAAC children, as well as the social workers who manage their cases. But alas, it got dull pretty quickly and at a certain point I gave up on the book and skipped ahead to read the ending. I must have skipped around 30% of the book, but it picked up as if I hadn’t missed anything.
I’ve read some bad books this year, but I think this takes the biscuit. I think this might be the last Donoghue I’ll read. Gutted.

This is an enthralling, beautiful, magical story full of lavish contrasts and both culture and character clashes but also develops to become an appreciation of the similarities and collaboration between the 2 principal characters, Noah and Michael. After they arrive in Nice, Noah discovers some facts that concern him about his mother's role in Nice during the WW2 whilst in parallel Michael's father's demise in the US could be more than it seems.

The main characters are both wonderful but also frustrating in parts as they struggle to get to know each other and find a way to get on together.

I really wanted to keep on following Noah and Michael but unfortunately the book has ended.

My only reservation about this book is the amount of Americanisms in the text, although luckily it is generally quite easy to guess what they are. The street talk is at least there for a purpose, ie to highlight the generational gap between Noah and Michael. The annoying way in which youngsters live through their electronic devices rather than in the real world is brought vividly to life - you can feel Noah's frustration. The investigation of Margot's life in wartime Nice is interesting and led me to look at more about the Nazi occupation. I found that I have stayed in one of the other hotels they commandeered, not the Excelsior, which I had no idea about at the time.

This is a lovely tale about family in the current day and the 1940s. Highly recommended.

I've always found Emma Donoghue a wonderfully readable novelist, and 'Akin' is no exception. This is a perfectly paced novel, and although it touches on some pretty dark themes, it's a comfortable read.

The central relationship between retired scientist Noah and the troubled young Michael is not really anything new, and a couple of their interactions felt formulaic. But I liked the push and pull of their budding friendship, and there are some lovely flashes of humour. I also enjoyed the mystery element, as Noah uncovers the secrets behind his mother's mysterious war-time photographs. This is what really drives the plot, but it also adds a poignant historical dimension and allows Noah and Michael to have some touching moments of genuine understanding.

I get the impression Donoghue is trying out a slightly different stylistic approach with 'Akin', and although it lacks the impact of 'Room' or the brilliance of 'The Wonder', perhaps it has a more understated charm. 'Akin' might not be shockingly special, but it's hard to deny this is the work of a talented writer.

Another excellent read by Emma Donoghue; I really enjoyed the layers of stories and characters that this comprised of, and the changes and twists to the mother’s story as it progressed.

Noah is 79 and about to retire from his job as a university professor. His wife is dead and so is his sister so he is planning a post retirement trip to Nice, which is where he was born before emigrating to the USA at a very young age in the second world war. However he is contacted by a weary and desperate social worker - his sister's son has died aged 26 of an overdose and had a child with a woman who is now in prison. The social worked wants Noah to assume responsibility for the boy, Michael, as his only living relative. He is rather bullied into agreeing and takes the boy to Nice with him. There as well as forging a relationship they work to discover what Noah's mother was doing in the war - was she a collaborator or a member of the resistance.

I enjoyed much of this book, but I was irritated from the off by the way in which Noah was pretty much forced into taking on the boy - at nearly 80! And Michael is just so obnoxious I would have bought him a plane ticket home pretty quickly. I hoped it wouldn't be a 'mutual redemption' story - but it was - with more to it than just that to be fair.

So 3 stars overall but still worth a read - thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy.

I absolutely loved this book. I loved the interaction between pensioner Noel and his great-nephew Michael. I loved the interweaving of family history and French history and I loved the vibrant descriptions of Nice. An uplifting tale of resilience and the true nature of family.

A troubled 11-year-old boy is foisted onto his elderly great uncle when his grandma who has been his carer dies, his father is already dead from a suspected drugs overdose and his mother is rightly or wrongly incarcerated for drug dealing. They have nothing whatsoever in common the elderly man is a retired college professor who has never had children of his own. The story follows a long-awaited trip back to Nice in France where the uncle was born, he has no alternative but to take the boy with him. The boy uses some very colorful language and his behavior is anything but appropriate but the uncle does try to cut him some slack given the circumstances. The book is well written and I enjoyed the banter between them and the descriptions of their trip together.

I enjoyed this book, and found myself completely caught up in the story of the unlikely friendship between Noah and Michael, as well as the unravelling of the story of Noah's mother. However, I found Michael a slightly unlikely character, more like a spoiled middle class child than a child from a poor, and broken home. Noah also takes very well to his quasi-parental role, for a childless 79 year-old. In spite of this, I would recommend this funny, entertaining and engrossing book.

A captivating read - Noah is 79 and widowed, newly retired from University teaching. The book revolves around him finding out more about his family - his nephew and great nephew Michael, who he ends up caring for, and his French mother and grandfather. I wanted to keep on reading and find out how they were going to get along, and had my fingers crossed for Noah and Michael. Most of the book is set in Nice, where Noah learns more about his family, and unearths lots of secrets. It was believable and engaging.

Noah and his great-nephew Michael are thrown together by family circumstances, not happy ones and find themselves on a trip to Nice that Noah had booked previously and doesn’t want to miss.
What follows is an elegiac journey between past and present. Alone, 79 yr old Noah wanted to revisit his birthplace and answer some questions about a period in his Mother’s life he knows very little about. With 11 yr old Michael in tow, grumpy, streetwise and hiding the damage caused by his upbringing not entirely successfully, it becomes an investigation into the history of the French Resistance and much more.
Both protagonists have much to teach each other. There are some wonderful set pieces and running jokes (the museum helmet for instance) as well as unhurried and insightful musings on that period of history. Noah knows some very dark things about the period of WW2 he is researching and many of them throw into stark relief ‘there is nothing new under the sun’.

I was sad when this book ended. It crackled with life and optimism and hope.

I was really excited to read Donoghue's new book Akin, but I'm kind of disappointed.
Noah is a 79 year old retired scientist, who's about to visit Nice, his birth place after so many years.
Suddenly, he learns that he's next of kin for Michael (11 years old), who's his great nephew. His father died, and mother is in jail with noone to take care of him. So, they have to start a forced relationship and travel to Nice together. Michael isn't a child friendly person with no child of his own, and Michael is kind of a rebel boy. In many ways, it reminded me of 'About A Boy.'
The relationship between these two is intersting to read, it's well written and all. Also, a mystery is introduced to the story in Nice from related to WW2 times.
Probably, the biggest reason I feel this book didn't work is, it's very unoriginal. This concept has been handled several times. I'm really surprised that Emma Donoghue, the writer of many original concepts would choose to go for a simple story like this with a quite dull plot.
The feeling I had when I was reading this book was 'been there, done that'. So, it wasn't for me.

But, if you like war mysteries, or the relationship between Michael and Noah is something that attracts you, it might be for you.

A tender, heartwarming and moving story which primarily focuses on the relationship between Manhattan widower, Noah and his intelligent but troubled eleven-year-old great-nephew, Michael. The witty and wryly humourous dialogue between octogenarian, Noah and wayward Michael is a joy to read.

As the story opens we learn that Michael’s father (and Noah’s nephew) Victor is dead, Amber, his mother in prison and so with no other close relatives to provide care, he is placed under the reluctant guardianship of widower, Noah, whom he has never met before. Their fledgling relationship is set against the backdrop of a nostalgic visit to Noah’s childhood home in Nice and his attempt to create meaning out of some long forgotten photos taken by his mother, Margot during World War Two. Noah is harbouring suspicions that his mother was a Nazi collaborator. Michael brimming with intelligence and a sense of injustice helps Noah in his quest to discover the truth.

This novel is an absolutely outstanding, intelligently written read; brimming with wit, poignancy and fascinating historical insights about the French Riviera under Nazi occupation. I was completely absorbed and truly moved by the originality of the story, the tender and affectionate yet simultaneously fractious relationship between Noah and Michael. I can unreservedly say that it is one of my favourite books this year. Having never read Emma Donaghue before I am now keen to read all her previous novels.

For his 80th birthday, Noah is planning to go to Nice in search of his family’s roots. However, his 11-year-old great-nephew who he’s never met is practically foisted on him since the child’s father died of an overdose and his mother is in prison. My first stumbling block was that it is completely ludicrous that Social Services would hand over a minor to his distant relative and let them go abroad together - not happening.
So we have an insolent boy and a crushing bore geriatric busily creating prickly silences in Nice. Okay...next?
Noah is going on and on about his gran-père Père Sonne (personne - nobody, nice play on words) the famous photographer, name-dropping, name-dropping. Okay...next?
And on the story rambles, of course with a large serving of the “Third Reich”, the ubiquitous topic without which, it seems, no book can be published nowadays.
The French’s comment on the book would be “meh”. Just made it to three points.

What appeared at first to be a story of an old man and a young boy foisted upon each other for a trip abroad for a week, finding they had things to learn from each other in the way of such stories, turned out to be so much more. This element is certainly there and the two characters are spot on, their interaction plays out realistically and I enjoyed their banter, but the author also introduces a little mystery as Noah seeks answers to his mother’s war years in France. The city of Nice is an essential player in this as we come to understand its history during the occupation of the 1940s. Noah’s mother’s experience echoes down the ages to his grand-nephew’s fractured family in 21st century New York. Written with sensitivity and insight, their stories melded in a way that had me hoping for a happy outcome for all concerned. A really satisfying read, I have no hesitation recommending it.

This would have tipped to a 4 star for me, except I didn't enjoy the mystery side of things. Noah is a good character, and I (mostly) liked the interplay between Noah & Michael. It did seem, of course, a little far-fetched that a young boy would be handed over to a geriatric distant relative & immediately allowed on a trip to Nice with him, without any vetting procedures whatsoever, but I suspended belief enough to allow that to pass...
What frustrated me more was Noah's obsession with the photographs, and the leaping to conclusions that seemed to occur. He went on and on about the possibility of his mother being a traitor, to the point where I felt I didn't much care anymore what the truth was! And this was frustrating to me because so much of the book was really, really good. It's written with such seeming ease, and I loved Noah hearing the voice of his dead wife all the time, and the history woven into the present day.
This is a good book, and it is mostly really well written, but it just had those few annoyances for me that took the edge off.

Room is one of my favourite books so I was looking forward to reading Emma's latest novel. Now I have to say that it is nothing like Room but neither is it like anything else I have ever read. Probably not a book I will return too however after a bit of a slow start I warmed to the characters and could really picture myself on holiday with them. A very well written piece.