FAMILY AFFAIR
Generations are brought together in Emma Donoghue’s newest novel
Emma Donoghue has a knack for plumbing history to find unusual stories, characters and inspirations for her novels.
In her new book, Akin, the Irishborn London, Ont., author does much the same, but with a contemporary twist in bringing together a 79-year-old, just-retired chemistry professor and a troubled 11-year-old boy — strangers but for bloodlines.
She puts them on a plane bound for Nice, France, for a weeklong vacation where they try to heal their hearts, save their lives and solve a mystery.
“I think we all find ourselves or our friends now with parents who have dementia, or are dying, and they are finding all these unresolved questions they’re only thinking about now and this book is about that process of puzzling over the lives of the generations that came before us,” said Donoghue.
“And then there is also the whole new challenge people can face late in life, inspired by somebody I met who was about to retire (and) suddenly found themselves having to raise a young child.”
Akin arrives just as a new stage version of Donoghue’s novel Room is being reworked for its Canadian première in London, Ont., in March, before heading to Toronto.
Donoghue adapted Room into an Oscar-nominated 2015 film directed by Lenny Abrahamson, which stars Brie Larson and Vancouver-born Jacob Tremblay. Donoghue first adapted Room for the stage for Covent Garden Productions. It premièred in London, England, in 2017, directed by Cora Bissett, who co-wrote songs for the show with Kathryn Joseph, and will direct the Canadian production.
Meanwhile, at the Civic Theatre in Dublin, Opera Collective Ireland has mounted the world première production of Raymond Deane’s Vagabones, an opera adapted from Donoghue’s 1996 radio play, Trespasses, about a 17th-century Irish witch trial.
Donoghue said the inspiration for Akin comes from multiple sources: Her own life experiences and observations; the wartime experiences of Marguerite Matisse, daughter of the famous French artist; and the real-life Marcel Network that saved more than 500 Jewish children from the Nazis by hiding them in and around Nice during the Second World War.
Donoghue lived in Nice for almost two years — first in 2011-12, then in 2014-15 — while her wife, Christine Roulston, a Western University professor of women’s studies, feminist research and French, was researching on sabbatical.
Akin tells the story of retired professor Noah, who is about to travel to his birthplace, Nice, to celebrate his 80th birthday.
As he packs, Noah comes across old photos taken by his long-dead mother, the daughter of a famous photographer, who had stayed behind in France in 1942 when four-year-old Noah was sent to the United States to live with his father.
She followed her son to the U.S. late in the war, but the two years of her life alone in France is a mystery to Noah.
Two days before his departure, a social worker contacts Noah trying to find a home for Noah’s 11-yearold great-nephew, Michael, his late sister’s grandson whose mother is in prison and whose father (Noah’s nephew) has died of a drug overdose. The boy had been living with his maternal grandmother and caregiver, who died suddenly.
If Noah doesn’t take the boy, he’ll be put in foster care. So he takes Michael to France while the social worker tries to track down an aunt, sister of the incarcerated mother, who may provide a permanent home.
There are the expected generational conflicts as Noah tries to find the truth behind the mysterious photos and a toy bird he found with them.
Donoghue said she drew on her own experiences with her children, Finn, 15, and Una, 12, in Nice for the “texture of everyday conversation” and their experiences, such as when a seagull stole a panini sandwich right out of her hand. The setting was deliberate. “I thought it would be a lovely contrast, putting them in a pleasure-filled place, full of life, with the sea and sights and all the patisseries around, and then all this darkness in the story would make for a good mix in tackling a grim subject,” Donoghue said.
“Often,” she said, “you can sneak a serious topic into a reader’s mind by presenting it in a beautiful place.”
Aging and death are themes in the book, which opens with Noah disposing of his late sister’s papers. Throughout the book, Noah hears the voice of his late wife, Joan, a celebrated scientist with whom he had a loving but childless marriage, advising him how to deal with Michael.
“I put her voice in for two reasons,” Donoghue said. “Because he’s 79, Noah is aware of death and he’s thinking about death a lot — his mother, his sister, his wife, his nephew — and I wanted to suggest how long someone’s voice would linger. Also because his wife was Jewish and, although he’s an atheist, her voice still lingers.”
Akin is Donoghue’s 12th novel, her first for adults since 2016’s The Wonder and after she wrote two instalments of a children’s series — 2017’s The Lotterys Plus One and last year’s The Lotterys More or Less.
Donoghue said she’s also working on several screenplays for films, including one for The Wonder, and recently completed the first draft of her next novel.
She’s thrilled that her 1996 radio play has been adapted into an opera.
“I’ve only heard snippets of it,” Donoghue said. “But when your work is adapted, you just have to let it happen ... just be intrigued and be excited.”
She’s especially delighted with artist director Dennis Garnhum’s “leadership” in bringing Room to Canada.
Garnhum “is putting London (Ont.) on the (theatrical) map,” said Donoghue. “I think the artistic life of this city is really quite wonderful.”
I think we all find ourselves or our friends now with parents who have dementia, or are dying, and they are finding all these unresolved questions they’re only thinking about now and this book is about that process of puzzling over the lives of the generations that came before us.