Many apologies but I am having to DNF this book. I loved ROOM but found this a little tedious and I can't finish it.
Apologies again.

This is a gorgeous, sympathetic, engrossing and most importantly kind story, much needed in today’s world. The author clearly understands 11 year old boys too!

I’ve only read one other novel, Room, by Emma Donoghue and was surprised that Akin was very different in its wit and charm which was very refreshing alongside a poignancy hidden deep in the past. The childless and widowed elderly Noah finds himself unwittingly and reluctantly drawn into the ‘short term’ fostering of the 11 year old son, Michael, of his estranged and deceased nephew on the eve of his first overseas holiday in years. Unable and unwilling to change his plans, Noah reluctantly agrees to Michael accompanying him, at great personal expense. Thus ensues, what appears to be from the outset, an unlikely pairing. During the week long holiday, Noah and Michael discover past family secrets neither of them knew, forging a proud kinship and reliance between the two of them. Beautifully written.

Having thought highly of Room, and as a photographer and artist with an interest in both family and World War II history, I was very much looking forward to Akin. On some levels, because of these interests, it was an engaging read; the cameos by famous artists and photographers were nice touches that brought the world to life and that feeling we get when we ask questions of family history, knowing we may never find the answers, was well captured (as were the realities of traveling with a mostly-unknown preteen!) It was also a thought-provoking read in the parallels it drew between modern inner-city and wartime life. All of this said, however, I was disappointed. I felt the writing was inconsistent—good at times, very clunky at others—and I found the plot sadly predictable, enough so that the lack of speed at which the characters drew conclusions required a suspension of disbelief. On the whole, not a bad read as such, but not one I would recommend.

Emma Donoghue has written a beautiful book based around two unlikely characters. Noah a retired professor is suddenly needed to look after his young great nephew Michael.
Noah is just about to travel to Nice. He wants to find out about is mother life in the wartime years. However, suddenly he has an 11 year old in tow. The two go on the trip and discover each other. Fall out and begin their own adventure

Sadly, couldn't get into this one. Emma Donoghue has such a wide variety of work and though I really enjoyed the location of the French Riviera, the writing style took away from it a bit, so I couldn't really connect with any of the characters. Unfortunately, I put it down after a few chapters.

It took me a long time to get into this book, and then a long time to realise that nothing original was going to happen. I enjoy Ms Donoghue's writing and loved "Room", but for me this didn't have the extra je ne sais quoi to make it a stand out novel.
Thank you to netgalley and Pan Macmillan for an advance copy of this book.

I think Emma Donoghue is such a talented writer, so I was delighted to have the opportunity from NetGalley to read Akin, her new novel. As with Room, Akin depicts an adult/child relationship but there the comparison ends.

Noah, a retired widowed professor is about to take a trip to Nice to revisit the city he was born in and left as a small boy, to move to the US as a wartime refugee. He has been looking forward to this trip for some time, so is irritated and concerned when he is contacted by social services and told that he is the only available blood relative of his nephew's child, Michael, who is at risk of being taken into care if Noah doesn't take temporary guardianship.

Michael has known nothing but upheaval, struggle and judgment. The son of a known criminal who died of an overdose and an (apparent) drug dealing mother, he doesn't trust anyone and just wants to be able to live with his uncle or aunt now that his grandmother is dead.

But no-one gets what they want in life, and within 48 hours of meeting each other, Noah and Michael are on a plane to Nice together. Their time in Nice is wonderfully fraught with misunderstandings, mistrust and a complete lack of understanding of each other's drivers and characters. But slowly Michael gets caught up in the mystery surrounding Noah's mother (what did she do during war? why didn't she leave Nice with Noah? who are in the photographs?), and helps Noah find the truth.

Fair warning, there is no 'twist' in Akin, it's not a page turner in the 'grip list' sense of the phrase, but it IS a beautifully honest depiction of two people so different in age and outlook thrown together in difficult circumstances.

I really enjoyed this novel - yes, this plot has been done before, but in the hands of Donoghue it becomes something deeper and more disquieting. I wasn't convinced by all of the parallels she draws between those Jewish victims caught up in Nazi-occupied Nice and the modern-day underprivileged trapped in the unfair criminal system (if you can't afford a decent lawyer, if you have a certain 'background', if you can't call on favours), but it certainly did bring home to me how hard it is for someone to escape the system once they're in it.

What I liked most was how 'real' the ending is. There is no perfect ending, life carries on, their flaws are still their flaws but by the end of the novel Noah and Michael have grown to accept who the other is and to like them anyway, and have no desire to change each other.

I loved this book. Noah is approaching his 80th birthday, and suddenly finds himself temporary guardian of his troubled 11 year old nephew Michael...... and this comes on the eve of a long awaited trip to Nice where he was born.
Michael faces an uncertain future but in the company of Noah he shows signs of flourishing, and I found myself hoping that Noah and Michael would be able to stay together on their return to New York. Both can learn much from each other.
Thank you, Net Galley, for this advance copy of Akin.

A huge departure from the authors previous book ‘Room’. It tells the story of a childless 79 year old professor tasked with looking after his 11 year old great nephew Michael. Michaels mother is in prison and Noah is the only alternative to the foster system although the two have never met and come from very different backgrounds.
The story traces their time together during a week in Nice, which Noah left as a small child during the war. It is interwoven with his attempts to solve a mystery posed by some old photos taken by his mother. I enjoyed the insights into the war years and the burgeoning relationship that develops between the child and the old man.

This book got me interested for two main reasons: Emma Donoghue’s Room is a book that I really enjoyed and loved the film even more and was therefore curious to read more by her, and the fact that Atkin takes mostly place in my homeland, France.

This book is very different from what I usually read; it’s a contemporary literary fiction about Noah, an older gentleman, and his estranged 11 year old nephew, Michael, who end up having to spend time together as the boy’s parents are dead and in prison. Atkin follows their relationship as they spend more time together in Noah’s hometown, Nice, France.

I was really surprised by how much I ended up enjoying Noah and Michael bickering and strange but very real relationship. I was afraid of getting bored of this character driven story but ended flying through the pages without realising it! I really liked the scenery of Nice and the historical elements that Donoghue brought to the story.

However, I do have to say that no matter how nice the characters and writing were, I still found myself wishing for something to happen, anything really, that would put me on the edge of my seat. It is therefore a me situation here rather than the book being the problem as I knew what I was getting into when I first started it. And this is why I gave it a 3/5 stars and not anything higher and lower. It was really good and well-written but very different from what I usually read.

I was rather disappointed in Akin. Emma Donoghue certainly writes well, but I found the book a bit of a mish-mash of themes which in the end didn’t say anything very new.

The story is of Noah, a retired, recently widowed professor, approaching 80 with a comfortable life in New York and on the verge of a sentimental journey to Nice where he was a child before the war. He becomes temporary guardian of Michael, his great-nephew whose mother is in prison, whom he has never met and who comes from a much tougher background and they head to Nice together.

What follows is a mixture: the rather unoriginal story of the two hopelessly unmatched people beginning to understand and bond with each other, a love-letter to Nice, some history of the dreadful events of the Nazi occupation of the city and a rather unconvincing mystery about Noah’s mother’s activities during the war. I’m afraid it felt like a bit of a mess to me because it lacked focus as it jumped from one theme to another, and the supposed mystery didn’t convince at all as Noah jumped from one tenuous, ill-founded conclusion to another. I found Michael’s character and voice pretty unconvincing as he quite often showed an astuteness and vocabulary well beyond his years. I was also slightly uneasy at the use of some of the Nazi and Holocaust material which felt just a little exploitative to me – although that may be just a personal view as my antennae are rather sensitive to that because of my own family’s history.

Donoghue is a good writer, so it’s all readable and I did finish it (with a little judicious skimming), but I wasn’t bonkers about it and it’s certainly not a patch on the brilliance of Room.

(My thanks to Picador for an ARC via NetGalley.)

It took me a while to decide whether or not I liked this book but I didn't want to stop reading. The storyline, a nearly 80 yr old reluctantly taking on the care of an 11 year old great nephew - I thought initially would be stereotypical but it wasn't. They embarked on a trip to Nice to look into the background of the 80yr old's family. The story had humour. The Great Uncle shows empathy and understanding, he does not try to change the boy or impose his values on him. The family story developed alongside the development of the relationship between the boy and his uncle. It is a book well worth reading.

Emma Donoghue has written the novel I wish I had. She has clearly mastered the art of prose very well and her latest novel will not disappoint old and new readers.

I loved the dynamics between the characters and the way Nice was brought to life in the present as well as in it's unfortunate past when it was occupied by the Germans.

Will definitely be recommending!

Emma Donoghue’s latest book, “Akin”, tells the story of Noah and Michael. Noah is an 80 year old widower who is about to embark on his first trip back to Nice, where he lived as a child. Michael is his 11 year old great-nephew who he has never met and who now needs a temporary guardian. Can the two put aside their differences and learn to get along?

Donoghue’s writing is simple but effective. I don’t feel like she overwrites her descriptions and her characterisation is lovely. I loved the burgeoning relationship between Noah and Michael. It’s hard to imagine how each must feel in the circumstances they find themselves in and I loved seeing them trying to figure each other out. I can see a little of myself in both of them and I loved when Noah let his slightly more playful side out occasionally. I really felt for Michael, it must be be so difficult to lose the only family you’ve known and be suddenly paired with this elderly gentleman who is supposed to be your relative but you’ve never met him before. Couple that with the feelings of anxiety and excitement you must feel about going to a foreign country for the first time and I have absolutely no idea how Michael kept it together.

There are a few different plots running through this one and I loved the way they intertwined with each other. The main plot of Noah looking into his Mother’s past definitely intrigued me and I felt like Donoghue executed it well but I would have liked to have seen more of the plot surrounding Victor’s death. Some parts were, unfortunately, a little predictable as well but it didn’t take a great deal of enjoyment away.

I enjoyed the historical facts about Nice and Noah’s family’s time there during World War II. I actually learned a lot from this book, which I love. Much like “Room”, “Akin” has left me thinking about it long after I stopped reading.

On the whole I’d say “Akin” is a great book. Donoghue’s writing completely hooked me in and I couldn’t put it down. The subject matter is obviously very different to “Room” but I’d still say if you liked “Room” you’d probably like this too.

A return to form for Emma O’Donoghue, this was an easy read with a good balance of humour and emotion. The two main characters, 12 and 79 respectively, were drawn really well, exposing their differences due to circumstance and age but also where they crossed over. However, two thirds in I did think it became slightly drawn out and repetitive and could have been a bit tighter,but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book too much.

I loved this, I loved the generation gap between Noah and Michael and how they had to navigate it. I loved the South of France setting, and I liked learning all about Noah's family.

What’s it About?
Noah, almost 80, is planning a solo trip to Nice to figure out some stuff from his childhood that's eluding him. Then he gets lumbered being the guardian to an 11 year old nephew he's never met. This book is the two of them getting to know each other on the French Riviera whilst Noah tries to work out his past.

What I liked:
Oh, but this book. France. And old man. A little boy. A wartime history. This book. Noah's never had children, so being handed the year old son of his dead sister and being told to take care of him is a shock to the system and watching the two of them get to know each other, locking horns and bickering over everything is so so wonderful. This book warms my heart. Running alongside Noah and Michael's voyage of wonderful self discovery is Noah's look into his past, looking for clues to some old photographs taken by his Mother, in Nice, in the war and that element of the story was so so fascinating and so well done. This book is just a treat to read - such good character studies you don't even know. I was enchanted.
What I liked less:
I don't actually know, if I'm honest. I just really really really liked it. I think occasionally I felt a tiny bit patronised - if that's even the right word? I was a little bit like yes Emma, I know, but it's hard to put that into words and really, this was such a wonderful wonderful book.

This is the second book by Emma Donoghue that I have read. the other being Room. I was disappointed with this book but it was an easy and quick read. I didn't find the characters at all engaging or particularly interesting. The 'mystery' was not much of one and the outcome was obvious to me from the beginning, but I do read a lot of WW2 fiction and nonfiction. The writing is ok but the story is very repetitive, of course some of this may have been edited out as I read an unproofed edition.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this unproofed e-ARC

Well written mystery that’s easy to read and keeps you interested.

The dynamics between the characters make it stand out and I enjoyed the grandparent angle.