Friday 27 March 2020

Akin by Emma Donoghue

Donoghue is the author of mega-selling Room, for which she wrote the screenplay now airing on Netflix. Akin is her new book and the story of an odd couple. 

First there's Noah, a recently retired science academic about to turn eighty and celebrating it with a trip to France, his place of birth. Noah has never got over the feeling of abandonment when his mother, Margot, stayed behind in Nice during the war, to care for her famous photographer father, Pere Sonne, shipping off young Noah to his dad in New York. Armed with a bundle of obscure photographs, he hopes to make sense of those missing years, before Margot rejoined the family on American soil.

Enter eleven-year-old Michael, born on the wrong side of the tracks, the son of Noah’s nephew who died of an overdose, while Michael’s mother is jailed for a drug deal she probably had nothing to do with. Mere days before his trip to Nice, Noah is asked to care for the boy to prevent him going to foster care. There is nothing for it but to take Michael along to Nice too. It is an uneasy pairing: the urbane, cultured Noah, the foul-mouthed boy with an addiction to gaming and junk food.

But Noah toughs it out, it’s just a temporary arrangement, and the two explore Nice together and slowly form a bond. Along the way, Nice is described in all its glory and Noah is the perfect tour guide with his knowledge of French, the arts and of the town’s history. This history frequently turns to the war years and the secret life of Margot, the work of the resistance and in particular the Marcel Network who saved hundreds of children from the concentration camps. But which side was Margot on?

Akin is a brilliantly layered book, offering a heart-warming look at how blood can be thicker than water, and the characters of Noah and Michael so sensitively drawn so that you feel for each of them. There is the story of the developing art of photography and the images are described so well you can picture them in your mind. But it is the story of the war in Nice, the occupation and the slow unravelling of secrets that really draws you in.

This is such a rich read, I could almost read the whole book again and would be sure to find plenty more nuggets to enjoy. It's a brilliant book, and likely to be one of my top reads for the year. Happily it is in multiple formats, so while you can't access a print copy, you can order it as an ebook. See the links below.

Posted by JAM

Catalogue link: Akin (normal print copy)


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