Review: AKIN by Emma Donoghue
Akin by Emma Donoghue Also by this author: Room, The Wonder
on September 10, 2019
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 352
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
AKIN Review
Emma Donoghue is an auto-buy author for me. I fell in love with the way she crafts her stories when I read her best-known novel, Room, and have immensely enjoyed every book of hers I’ve read since. It was therefore a given that I would request a review copy of Akin, her latest novel. I was a little nervous since I always hype her books up in my head and then worry they won’t live up to my expectations, but my worries were alleviated as soon as I read the first page and was immediately drawn into the life of the quirky protagonist, Noah Selvaggio.
Noah is a seventy-nine year old retired professor who is about to embark on a trip to the South of France, where he was born. It’s a trip he has been meaning to take for years, but now that he’s a widower and nearing 80, he knows his time is running out. While getting his affairs in order for the trip, he is contacted unexpectedly by a representative from Child Services, informing him that his 11 year old great nephew is in danger of being separated from his family if he doesn’t have a relative that he can move in with immediately. Michael’s mother is in prison, his father is deceased, and no other relatives are able or willing to take him at this time. Noah has never had any contact with Michael – they are strangers to each other – but after much consideration, he agrees to take him in on a temporary basis. When he finally meets Michael, he is immediately faced with a mouthy pre-teen who curses like a sailor and who does everything he can to be as uncooperative as possible. Noah is resigned to the situation though and so this unlikely duo sets off for Nice, France together.
Much of Akin explores the evolving relationship between Noah and Michael, and I just loved every minute of this. Donoghue has the entire story unfold from Noah’s perspective so we’re in his head as he, who never had children of his own, tries to navigate the minefield of parenthood while dealing with a child who is clearly lashing out because he is in a situation that isn’t of his own making. Noah is practically walking a tightrope trying to gently parent the child, but without overstepping his boundaries, and it’s very challenging every step of the way. I really loved watching this pair get to know each other, and I thought Donoghue did a brilliant job of authentically depicting the relationship, with all of its inevitable ups and downs. They have their fair share of tender moments and frustrating moments, but there are also plenty of laugh out loud moments along the way.
While that relationship is the driving force behind the novel, Donoghue adds a fabulous subplot that I thought just really took the book to another level. While Noah is preparing for his trip to France, he comes across a packet of old photos in some of his mother’s belongings. They’re unusual photos that don’t make sense to Noah, but he can see they were taken in France during the 1940’s, so he decides to bring them along to see if the opportunity to learn more about them presents itself. Noah doesn’t know where to even begin, but his technologically savvy great nephew comes in very handy and helps him identify a hotel in one of the photos. The hotel, as it turns out, was a headquarters of sorts for the Nazis during WWII. It was where they brought Jews and other prisoners before shipping them off to Drancy and then to Auschwitz. I’m a huge fan of historical fiction, especially WWII fiction, so this angle of the story just sucked me right in, especially as it became clear that Noah’s mother had played an active role in the war. What wasn’t so clear, however, was what side she was on, Resistance or Nazi collaborator. Noah becomes obsessed with trying to figure out what his mother’s role was because he’s starting to feel as if he never really knew his mother at all. Michael is equally curious since this woman would have been his great grandmother, and so the two of them work as a team to learn the truth.
Emma Donoghue’s Akin is just such a wonderful read on so many levels. The mystery regarding Noah’s mother is riveting, but it’s that relationship between Noah and Michael that gives this story such heart. As its title suggests, Akin is ultimately a beautiful story about what it means to be family. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys stories that focus on family, to fans of both contemporary and historical fiction, and of course to Emma Donoghue fans, who are sure to love this gem. I think it’s my favorite Donoghue book yet!
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
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 bestselling 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 bestseller, 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.
About Emma Donoghue
Emma is the youngest of eight children of Frances and Denis Donoghue. She attended Catholic convent schools in Dublin, apart from one year in New York at the age of ten. In 1990 she earned a first-class honours BA in English and French from University College Dublin, and in 1997 a PhD (on the concept of friendship between men and women in eighteenth-century English fiction) from the University of Cambridge. Since the age of 23, Donoghue has earned her living as a full-time writer. After years of commuting between England, Ireland, and Canada, in 1998 she settled in London, Ontario, where she lives with her partner and their son and daughter.
Review: THE LONG CALL by Ann Cleeves
The Long Call by Ann Cleeves 
Published by Minotaur Books on September 3, 2019
Genres: Mystery, Fiction
Pages: 384
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
The Long Call is the first book in an exciting new series from award-winning author Ann Cleeves. I’ve always heard great things about Cleeves’ writing so when I heard she had a new series coming out, I was eager to request a copy and dive right in. Well, I’m thrilled to report that everything great I’ve heard is 100% accurate. Set in the small town of North Devon, England, The Long Call grabbed my attention from the opening scene and kept me thoroughly under its spell until the very end.
The protagonist of The Long Call is a police detective named Matthew Venn, and when the story opens, he’s attending his father’s funeral but only from a distance, and he makes no contact whatsoever with any friends or family members who are in attendance. This drew me in immediately and made me want to know more about Matthew. He’s clearly an outsider in his family and community and fears that he won’t be welcome at his own father’s funeral. Within a few short paragraphs, we learn that Matthew grew up in a strict evangelical community until the day he renounced his faith and was ostracized from the Brethren. He also clearly feels a sense of guilt about everything that transpired and that he and his father didn’t make amends before his death. I loved the complexity that this whole backstory added to Matthew’s character, especially when the case he is working on forces him to go back and make contact with some of the people from the Brethren, including his mother.
What can sometimes make a crime novel a miss for me is when I don’t feel any kind of connection to the main characters, so I appreciated that Cleeves took so much effort to make Matthew someone I was immediately invested in. I also loved that in addition to what was going on with Matthew’s family and former church, we also got to see a more intimate side of him as well, as there were domestic scenes between Matthew and his husband, Jonathan. Jonathan is a great character as well, basically Matthew’s opposite in every way, so it was interesting watching the two of them interact and how their personalities complimented each other. The author allows us a glimpse into the personal lives of other members of Matthew’s team as well, particularly Detective Jen Rafferty, who is constantly plagued by guilt that she rarely sees her kids because of work. By the time I reached the end of the novel, I was fully invested in the entire team of detectives and was eager to get my hands on the next book so that I could continue my journey with them.
As I’m sure you’ve deduced by now, even though it’s a murder mystery, The Long Call is a very character driven story. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of plot to drive the story as well. The murder case itself is actually quite riveting. A man with an albatross tattoo has been found murdered on the beach and it’s up to Matthew and his team to figure out who he is, who murdered him, and why. I don’t want to give away any spoilers so I’m not going to say too much about that beyond the fact that I loved that the story takes place in such a small town because it made the investigation take all kinds of awkward and potentially uncomfortable twists and turns as friends, neighbors, and even family had to be questioned and considered as possible suspects. I also loved that Cleeves had several intricate yet seemingly unrelated threads going at the same time and then masterfully had them intertwine for a surprising yet satisfying conclusion. She really kept me guessing as to who the murderer was all the way until the closing pages.
If a small town setting, a well drawn cast of characters, and a twisty murder mystery sound like they’re up your alley, I’d highly recommend picking up a copy of Ann Cleeves’ The Long Call. It’s an immensely satisfying read.
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
For the first time in 20 years, Ann Cleeves—international bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows—embarks on a gripping new series.
In North Devon, where two rivers converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his father’s funeral takes place. Once loved and cherished, the day Matthew left the strict evangelical community he grew up in, he lost his family too.Now, as he turns and walks away again, he receives a call from one of his team. A body has been found on the beach nearby: a man with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death.
The case calls Matthew back into the community he thought he had left behind, as deadly secrets hidden at its heart are revealed, and his past and present collide.
An astonishing new novel told with compassion and searing insight, The Long Call will captivate fans of Vera and Shetland, as well as new readers.
About Ann Cleeves
ANN CLEEVES is the multi-million copy bestselling author behind two hit television series—the BBC’s Shetland, starring Douglas Henshall, and ITV’s Vera, starring Academy Award Nominee Brenda Blethyn—both of which are watched and loved in the US. Her brand new Two Rivers series will launch in September 2019, with The Long Call.
Shetland is available in the US on Netflix, Amazon Video, Britbox, and PBS, and Vera is available on Hulu, Amazon Video, BritBox, and PBS.
The first Shetland novel, Raven Black, won the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel, and Ann was awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger in 2017. She lives in the UK.
Top Ten Tuesday – 10 Nonfiction Books I Enjoyed Even Though I Don’t Usually Like to Read Nonfiction
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is Books I Enjoyed That Are Outside of My Comfort Zone. This topic was rather challenging since I have pretty eclectic reading tastes and read many different genres. Nonfiction and horror are the main two areas I would say are outside of my comfort zone, and I’m such a chicken that I’m pretty sure I’ve never even read ten books that would qualify as horror, lol. So by process of elimination, I therefore went with Nonfiction. It’s not that I have anything against Nonfiction either; I just typically prefer to read Fiction. That said, I do enjoy the occasional Nonfiction read, especially if it’s something that I find inspiring.
10 Nonfiction Books I Enjoyed Even Though I Don’t Usually Like to Read Nonfiction
1. BECOMING by Michelle Obama. “An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States.” I don’t read memoirs very often but I love Michelle Obama so I couldn’t resist reading her book. I did the audio version and was just captivated by her storytelling ability and by how articulate and poised she is.
2. WHAT HAPPENED by Hillary Rodham Clinton. “In the past, for reasons I try to explain, I’ve often felt I had to be careful in public, like I was up on a wire without a net. Now I’m letting my guard down.” —Hillary Rodham Clinton, from the introduction of What Happened. As I’m sure you’ve gathered if you’ve followed my blog long enough, I’m kind of a political junkie and even though nonfiction is typically not my thing, I just had to read Hillary’s book when it came out. I loved how thoughtful Hillary was in the book as she reflected on what happened in 2016. I was also impressed that even though there were clearly people she could point the finger out, she also took full responsibility when it came to things she probably should have handled differently.
3. I AM MALALA: THE STORY OF THE GIRL WHO STOOD UP FOR EDUCATION AND WAS SHOT BY THE TALIBAN by Malala Yousafzai. Malala is such an inspirational young woman that her autobiography was a must-read for me.
4. UNBROKEN: A WORLD WAR II STORY OF SURVIVAL, RESILIENCE AND REDEMPTION by Laura Hillenbrand. If you haven’t read the story of Lieutenant Louis Zamperini and how he survived his plane crashing into the Pacific Ocean during WWII, you need to grab a copy. It’s a riveting journey that I read in a couple of sittings even though it’s almost 500 pages long.
5. THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS by Rebecca Skloot. This is such an incredible read. It’s almost impossible to describe it in a way that does it justice, but for those unfamiliar with Henrietta Lacks, here’s a bit from the synopsis so you can see why the author wanted to tell Henrietta’s story.
“Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.
Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.”
6. THE END OF YOUR LIFE BOOK CLUB by Will Schwalbe. The inspiring story of a son and his dying mother, who form a “book club” that brings them together as her life comes to a close. I was initially drawn to this one because it’s a book about books, but what I got was so much more. It’s a beautiful and moving story about a man trying to spend as much quality time as possible with his dying mother through their shared loved of reading. I LOVED THIS BOOK.
7. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE by Mitch Albom. An old man, a young man, and life’s greatest lesson. I remember devouring this book when it first came out. I loved all of the messages about life that the author learned from his time spent with Morrie, a man suffering from ALS.
8. IN COLD BLOOD by Truman Capote. I’ve tried to read true crime stories a few times, but this one is the only one that has really stuck with me, I guess because it’s a classic.
9. TALKING AS FAST AS I CAN by Lauren Graham. I’m not usually a big fan of celebrity memoirs, but I love Lauren Graham and the Gilmore Girls so I made an exception and read this one. I’m really glad I did too because Lauren Graham is hilarious and this was such an entertaining read.
10. SCRAPPY LITTLE NOBODY by Anna Kendrick. Again I made an exception and read Anna’s book even though celebrity memoirs aren’t really my thing. I didn’t love this one quite as much as I enjoyed Graham’s but it was still a fun read. I wish I had done it on audio instead of print because I think Anna’s humor would have translated better in her own voice.
* * * * *
What are some of your favorite nonfiction reads?