Akin by Emma Donoghue - audiobook.Noah Selvaggio, an urbane 79 year old retired professor, pads carefully about his smart Manhattan apartment, packing a small case in preparation for a long awaited trip to Nice, his childhood home. He is a widower and lives a quiet life where often the only voice he hears is that of his departed wife talking softly, sardonically and always sensibly in his ear, guiding him through the latter years of his life.Noah’s preparations are interrupted by a telephone cal...

Beginning in New York City:At the start of this novel....social worker, Rosa Figueroa connects the 79 year old retired-widowed professor Noah Selvaggio, and his 11 year old great-nephew, Michael Young, together.Michael’s mother, Amber, was in prison. Michael’s father, Victor, died young from a drug overdose, who was married to Noah’s sister, Fernande. Fernande was dead too. Noah lost his wife, his sister, his parents, and his job. Noah had one friend: Vivienne. Vivienne had been Joan’s best frie...

I’ve enjoyed everything by Emma Donoghue that I’ve read, so there was no doubting I was going to miss out on this. With the frequency of grandparents taking care of grandkids because the parents are dead or incarcerated, it’s just a slight stretch that a great uncle would get the call. Noah, a 79 year old professor, gets just that request right before he’s due to visit Nice, his place of birth and a place he hasn’t seen since leaving when he was four. As someone who’s not a natural with kids, I

Emma Donoghue is a mesmerizing writer who is not afraid to take chances. When reading her previous books – Room, for example, or The Wonder – I did not come up for air. So my first reaction on her latest book was a bit of disappointment. “A retired New York professor’s life is thrown into chaos when he takes a young grand-nephew to France in hopes of uncovering his own mother’s secrets from World War II.” Really? Hadn’t I read the old man/young boy (“child is father to the man”) story many times...

2.5, rounded up.Donahue rose to fame and fortune on the basis of her novel Room, which told a compelling story, but utterly failed to convince me that it was written from the perspective of its 5 year old protagonist (both the vocabulary and insight of the boy far exceeded such a young age). Her new book suffers something of a similar fate ... the main characters are an old codger approaching his 80th birthday, and his 11 year old great nephew, whom circumstances have left in his care during a f...

4 stars! A multi-layered, endearing and intriguing family journey.The main relationship in this novel is between great uncle and great nephew. Seventy-nine-year-old widowed Noah, is great uncle to Michael, the son of Noah’s deceased nephew. Noah finds himself in the position of being the only living relative able to take guardianship over Michael when his maternal grandmother passes away. This was a unique and very interesting relationship to explore, especially since Noah and Michael had never

I loved Akin. 79-year old Noah is about to embark on a trip to Nice when he receives an unexpected call requesting assistance to care for his 11-year old great nephew, Michael. Instead of cancelling the trip, Noah begrudgingly agrees to temporarily assume responsibility for Michael and brings him along to France.Noah hasn’t been back to Nice since he left, as a young child. He has photos of his mother there and is trying to solve some unknowns about her life and potential involvement in WWII. No...

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/2.5 StarsAm I in a book slump? It seems my “mehs” are seriously outweighing my yeahs at this point : (Alright, so I’m the naysayer when it comes to the Akin party. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Aside from the aforementioned possible slump as well as the fact that I consistently suck turtles. I mean, there’s zero doubt that Emma Donoghue knows how to tell a story – unfortunately I just didn’t connect with this one.Maybe my expectat...

* 1.5 *I will select the more civil notes I scribbled while reading this one :Pretentious wind bagging ! does a recently abandoned child need to know how a Le Corbusier chair works ?Stop peppering “Dude” in every conversation between the old man and the eleven year old. Reading about characters googling historical information and then relaying said information does not make for exciting reading.There is just not enough story here and it is criminally boring ! Whispered to myself: “Find something...

Touching. Witty. Heartbreaking. Emma Donoghue’s latest is all of those and more. This was such a wonderful read that I found myself savoring it, reading only a chapter or so a night, making it last.Noah is a retired chemistry professor living in New York. His wife, Joan, passed away nearly a decade ago. Noah is originally from France, and he’s finally planned a trip to his birthplace, Nice. But shortly before his trip, he receives a call from social services: he is the only available relative ab...

When seventy-nine-year-old Noah was asked to take temporary guardianship of his eleven-year-old great nephew, Michael, whom he had never met, he was horrified. He and wife Joan had never had children, so with Joan deceased, the widow and the lonely, reticent child (Michael’s maternal grandmother had just passed; his mother was in jail; father dead) were meant to “hang out”. Noah was leaving within days for a trip to his birthplace, Nice, which he had had planned for quite some time. He would tur...

Akin' is nothing less than a touching, delightful, and poignant noble by the esteemed Emma Donoghue. There was nothing not to like about this tremendous story of 79 yo widower Noah Selvaggio and his 11-year-old great-nephew, Michael. Sadly, Michael has essentially been left orphaned and currently in the foster care system. Widower Noah is all set to go to Nice, France to research his familial history when a social worker calls and asks if he can please take Michael in temporarily until she can f...

What a disappointment from Emma Donoghue. I didn't read Room but read Slamerkin years ago and loved it. This book had all the right themes and set up for a story that I would like: a Jewish great grandfather, Noah, takes his great nephew, Michael, on a trip to France to find the answers to a family mystery that took place during WW11. What could go wrong? Well, Noah only met Michael a few days before they leave on the trip to Nice . Unbelievable, but I gave Donoghue the benefit of the doubt expe...

The retired, childless, widower and 80 year old Noah Selvaggio is told that he is the only viable caretaker for Michael, his 11 year old great-nephew. Michael’s father overdosed, his mother is in prison and his grandmother has just died. Noah agrees to temporary guardianship but he doesn’t want to interrupt his planned trip to Nice, where he was born, so he takes Noah with him. I won’t give away the ending, but trust me you already know how this is going to turn out. I kept waiting for something...

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 Mic...

I read this book due to it being the library pick for the 2020 Guardian Not the Booker Prize.It is, I realised, the third book I have read by this author after her famous “Room” and her historical novel “The Wonder” and unfortunately it was by far the weakest of those three – really because I felt its set up was doubly lacking originality (both in the two protagonists and the story).The two main characters are: Noah (an 80 year old widowed, still active chemistry Professor who lives in New York)...