Akin
Oct 2019 · Pan Macmillan
4.5star
2 reviewsreport
eBook
352
Pages
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About this eBook
Akin is a tender tale of love, loss and family, from Emma Donoghue, the international bestselling author of Room.
'If Room forced home truths on us, about parenthood, responsibility and love, Akin deals with similar subject matter more subtly, but in the end just as compellingly' - Guardian
A retired New York professor’s life is thrown into chaos when he takes his great-nephew to the French Riviera, in hopes of uncovering his own mother's wartime secrets.
Noah is only days away from his first trip back to Nice since he was a child when a social worker calls looking for a temporary home for Michael, his eleven-year-old great-nephew. Though he has never met the boy, he gets talked into taking him along to France.
This odd couple, suffering from jet lag and culture shock, argue about everything from steak haché to screen time, and the trip is looking like a disaster. But as Michael helps Noah unearth troubling details about their family’s past, they find they are more akin than they knew.
Akin is a funny, heart-wrenching tale of an old man and a boy who unpick their painful story and start to write a new one together.
'Poignant and hopeful, the bestselling novelist of Room has delivered another exquisite portrayal of an adult and child making their way in the world' – Woman & Home
'If Room forced home truths on us, about parenthood, responsibility and love, Akin deals with similar subject matter more subtly, but in the end just as compellingly' - Guardian
A retired New York professor’s life is thrown into chaos when he takes his great-nephew to the French Riviera, in hopes of uncovering his own mother's wartime secrets.
Noah is only days away from his first trip back to Nice since he was a child when a social worker calls looking for a temporary home for Michael, his eleven-year-old great-nephew. Though he has never met the boy, he gets talked into taking him along to France.
This odd couple, suffering from jet lag and culture shock, argue about everything from steak haché to screen time, and the trip is looking like a disaster. But as Michael helps Noah unearth troubling details about their family’s past, they find they are more akin than they knew.
Akin is a funny, heart-wrenching tale of an old man and a boy who unpick their painful story and start to write a new one together.
'Poignant and hopeful, the bestselling novelist of Room has delivered another exquisite portrayal of an adult and child making their way in the world' – Woman & Home
Ratings and reviews
4.5
2 reviews
Greg
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27 March 2020
I hadn't enjoyed "The Room" which prejudiced me against Emma's other books. I'm glad I broke the bias. On a simplistic level, I found this charming, sensitive, and moving. I was mesmerised by the mix of historical mystery, poetic travelogue that a holiday brochure copy writer would kill for and the constantly engaging quid pro quo of the two main characters.. The unravelling of memories, the persistent ambiguities of those same memories and the unearthing of sordid discoveries...all wonderful.
About the author
Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is an Irish emigrant twice over: she spent eight years in Cambridge doing a PhD in eighteenth-century literature before moving to London, Ontario, where she lives with her partner and their two children. She also migrates between genres, writing literary history, biography, stage and radio plays as well as fairy tales and short stories. She is best known for her novels, which range from the historical (Frog Music, Slammerkin, Life Mask, Landing, The Sealed Letter and The Wonder) to the contemporary (Stir-Fry, Hood, Landing). Her international bestseller Room was a New York Times Best Book of 2010 and was a finalist for the Man Booker, Commonwealth, and Orange Prizes.
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