Akin

A retired New York professor's life is thrown into chaos when he takes a young great-nephew to the French Riviera, in hopes of uncovering his own mother's wartime secrets in the next masterpiece from New York Times best-selling author Emma Donoghue.

Noah Selvaggio is a retired chemistry professor and widower living on the Upper West Side, but born in the South of France. He is days away from his first visit back to Nice since he was a child, bringing with him a handful of puzzling photos he's discovered from his mother's wartime years. But he receives a call from social services: Noah is the closest available relative of an eleven-year-old great-nephew he's never met, who urgently needs someone to look after him. Out of a feeling of obligation, Noah agrees to take Michael along on his trip.

Much has changed in this famously charming seaside mecca, still haunted by memories of the Nazi occupation. The unlikely duo, suffering from jet lag and culture shock, bicker about everything from steak frites to screen time. But Noah gradually comes to appreciate the boy's truculent wit, and Michael's ease with tech and sharp eye help Noah unearth troubling details about their family's past. Both come to grasp the risks people in all eras have run for their loved ones, and find they are more akin than they knew.

Written with all the tenderness and psychological intensity that made Room an international best seller, Akin is a funny, heart-wrenching tale of an old man and a boy, born two generations apart, who unpick their painful story and start to write a new one together.

Read more REVIEW
"Donoghue's writing is as lush as it is clear-eyed; her characters and settings emerge in richly detailed prose, but there's never a word out of place." - Quill & Quire

"Emma Donoghue again demonstrates her facility for tension-ridden storytelling and unusual empathy." - NOW Magazine

"A quietly delightful read, perfectly calibrated for deep enjoyment." - The Globe and Mail

"Donoghue's sparkling story is both inventive and thought-provoking." - London Free Press

Praise for The Wonder: -

"Heartbreaking and transcendent" - New York Times

"Dark and vivid, with complicated characters, this is a novel that lodges itself deep" - USA Today

"A tense gothic page-turner in which nobody, including the unreliable nurse narrator, are entirely what they seem. A powerful exploration of religion and the sway it holds, The Wonder is equal parts psychological drama and unorthodox love story. A thoroughly enjoyable read from one of the country's premier storytellers." - Toronto Star

"[B]ack with a novel as gripping and intense as the popular Room. The Wonder, is set in 1850s Ireland and will undoubtedly also be adapted to the big screen. The prose is so intensely alive, so cinematic that you truly can see the action unfolding before your eyes." - Ottawa Citizen

"Her contemporary thriller Room (2010) made the author an international bestseller, but this gripping tale offers a welcome reminder that her historical fiction is equally fine." - Kirkus Reviews(starred review)

"Donoghue's literary prowess creeps like a dark, menacing fog across the pages." - Quill & Quire

Praise for Room: -

"Room is that rarest of entities, an entirely original work of art. I mean it as the highest possible praise when I tell you that I can't compare it to any other book. Suffice to say that it's potent, darkly beautiful, and revelatory." - Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours

"Claustrophobic, controversial, brilliant . . . inventive, tense, and stringently intelligent." - Maclean's

"Remarkable . . . heartrending. . . . Both gripping and poignant, it's a tribute to human resourcefulness and resilience and extremity, and a stirring portrait of a mother's devotion." - Toronto Star

"Thrilling and at moments palm-sweatingly harrowing." - New York Times Book Review

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 French partner and their two children. Her fascination with Nice developed over the two years her family have spent in that city.




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 (Slammerkin, Life Mask, Landing, The Sealed Letter) 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. For more information, visit www.emmadonoghue.com. Read more