Akin by Emma Donoghue

This was a random book I picked up during one of my last trips to the library. I saw it everywhere when it first came out, and although I was not as big a fan of the author’s other book as many people were (another that I read as a hard copy), I wanted to give this a shot. This is a found family narrative that stretches in both directions of time. We have an old man who has lived a long life and, on a planned trip to his birth country, begins to question his mother’s role during the German occupation. He is also suddenly saddled with his late nephew’s son since he is the sole blood relative who is even remotely capable of caring for him. Given his advanced age and the distance in the relationship, the transition is shown in a very believable manner. The investigation into the people who are no longer there goes both ways. Noah starts to look into his mother’s life as well as reassess what he knows about his troubled nephew’s life. The discoveries and his own introspections surprise him. The story is a little slow going at first, but I am glad I read it. It is a very realistic narrative, and the age of the protagonist is reflected in the way he behaves. I liked the overall plot and the way things ended up. I would recommend this to fans of books with odd pairs of characters as well as historical fiction (to some degree).