A Review of the Book "Akin" by Emma Donoghue

Title: Akin
Author: Emma Donoghue
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Year: 2019
333 pages

"Akin" is a heart-warming story about a man near the end of his life and a boy essentially just beginning his. Two people who come together having never met, joined only by blood, and discovering more about themselves than about each other.

Noah has just lost his sister and in her will, she left him an inheritance and a note that basically said to have fun and enjoy the money. So he decided to go to Nice, France, his birthplace and somewhere he hadn't been since he left the country in his childhood.

Days before he left, a social worker called asking him to take into his care a teenage boy who, by blood, was his great-nephew. Noah and his nephew, Victor, had not spoken to each in a very long time. Victor was a drug addict and had killed himself. Before his death, he and his girlfriend had a child that Noah had never met. It was this child, Michael, that Noah was now being asked to care for as his mother had landed herself in jail.

Noah was not about to cancel this trip of a life time, so he took Michael with him to France.

It was not the trip Noah expected. Not only did he have this unknown-to-him teenage boy tagging along, but together they unearthed family secrets that shocked Noah to the core. Meanwhile, and completely unexpectedly, the two got closer, learning along the way that one equally needed the other.

They became each others' saviours.

In this wonderfully written book, Emma Donoghue brings readers deep into the story in such a way that you can't help but become invested in the characters and the mystery of the Selvaggio family. And the ending will just melt your heart.