Authors @New Canaan Library presents Emma Donoghue, Introducing Latest Novel Akin

New Canaan Library is pleased to welcome Emma Donoghue, author of the international bestseller Room, introducing her just released novel Akin. Ms. Donoghue will present her talk on Wednesday, September 18, at 6:30 p.m. in the Adrian Lamb Room. This program is presented in collaboration with Elm Street Books. Please register online at newcanaanlibrary.org.

Written with all the emotional intensity that made Room an international bestseller, Akin tells with humor and tenderness the story of retired New York professor Noah Selvaggio. As he prepares for a first visit back to his birthplace, the South of France, Noah has no idea of how drastically his life is about to change. Armed with a handful of photos, he had planned his trip to unravel the mystery of his mother’s wartime years. Then, out of the blue, 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. He begrudgingly agrees, but that means bringing the eleven year old on his trip, and so the journey begins. The unlikely duo, suffering from jet lag, culture shock and generational differences, gradually find their way towards each other and a new understanding of the risks one takes for family and those they love.

Emma Donoghue is an Irish-Canadian playwright, literary historian, novelist, and screenwriter. Her 2010 novel Room was a finalist for the Man Booker, Commonwealth, and Orange Prizes, and was a New York Times Best Book of 2010, and an international best-seller. Donoghue’s 1995 novel Hood won the Stonewall Book Award; Slammerkin won the Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction.
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 partner and their two children.