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Restless: A Novelby William Boyd
Awards2006 Costa Book Award winner
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:It is Paris, 1939. At the funeral of her beloved younger brother, twenty-eight year old Eva Delectorskaya notices a stranger. Lucas Romer is a patrician looking Englishman with a secretive air and a persuasive manner. He also has a mysterious connection to Eva's murdered brother. Romer recruits to become a spy for the British government. Soon she is sent to New York City, where she becomes a key player in a complex operation by the British secret service to manipulate the press in order to shift public sentiment and draw America into World War II. In New York she comes to understand the life of a spy: danger and excitement alternating with boredom and loneliness, the potential for both love and betrayal.
Three decades later, Eva has reinvented herself as a respectable English widow, living in a picturesque Cotswold village. No one, not even her daughter Ruth, knows her real identity. But once a spy, always a spy. Sally has far too many secrets, and she has no one to trust. Before it is too late, she must confront the demons of her past. But this time she can't do it alone, she needs her daughter's help. Restless is a brilliant espionage novel and a vivid portrait of the life of a female spy. Full of tension and drama, and based on a remarkable chapter of Anglo-American history, this is storytelling at its finest. Review:"When Ruth Gilmartin learns the true identity — and the WWII profession — of her aging mother, Sally Gilmartin, at the start of Boyd's elegant ninth novel (after Any Human Heart), Ruth is understandably surprised. Sally, née Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian émigré living in Paris in 1939, was recruited as a spy by Lucas Romer, the head of a secretive propaganda group called British Security Coordination, to help get America into the war. This fascinating story is well told, but slightly undercut by Ruth's less-than-dramatic life as a single mother teaching English at Oxford while pursuing a graduate degree in history. Ruth's more pedestrian existence can't really compete with her mother's dramatic revelations. The contemporary narrative achieves a good deal more urgency when Ruth's mother recruits her to hunt down the reclusive, elusive Romer. But the real story is Eva/Sally's, a vividly drawn portrait of a minor figure in spydom caught up in the epic events leading up to WWII. (Oct.)" Publishers Weekly Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review:"When Ruth Gilmartin learns the true identity — and the WWII profession — of her aging mother, Sally Gilmartin, at the start of Boyd's elegant ninth novel (after Any Human Heart), Ruth is understandably surprised. Sally, ne Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian migr living in Paris in 1939, was recruited as a spy by Lucas Romer, the head of a secretive propaganda group called British Security Coordination, to help get America into the war. This fascinating story is well told, but slightly undercut by Ruth's less-than-dramatic life as a single mother teaching English at Oxford while pursuing a graduate degree in history. Ruth's more pedestrian existence can't really compete with her mother's dramatic revelations. The contemporary narrative achieves a good deal more urgency when Ruth's mother recruits her to hunt down the reclusive, elusive Romer. But the real story is Eva/Sally's, a vividly drawn portrait of a minor figure in spydom caught up in the epic events leading up to WWII." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"Halfway through William Boyd's entertaining new novel, 'Restless,' Ruth Gilmartin, a single mother living in Oxford, England, muses to herself, 'People lead their real, most interesting lives under cover of secrecy.' She has good reason to let her thoughts stray in this direction: She's recently discovered that almost everything she knows about her mother, the handsome and spirited 65-year-old British... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) Review:"If an espionage thriller...can be called a cozy, this is it....A somewhat clumsy narrative enlivened by some expertly generated suspense." Booklist Review:"some readers may be annoyed by the author's stylistic tics...others will enjoy this glimpse of wartime dirty tricks." Library Journal Review:"A bit light on action and intrigue, but a cool, collected effort." Kirkus Reviews Review:"Although Boyd, a deft and stylish storyteller, has delivered an enjoyable read, a skein of loose threads leaves a nagging sense of unfinished business. This is a novel that could be, and probably should be, more..." Los Angeles Times Review:"How pleasing that a novel that tackles such serious questions as the relation between past and present, old selves and new identities, love and work, and, of course, illusion versus reality can be such an enjoyable thing to read." Chicago Tribune Review:"Boyd has penned a fine tale here....The story of Eva Delectorskaya provides a terrific portrait of a woman caught up in an event that changed the world — and her life — forever." San Francisco Chronicle Review:"Boyd's special virtue is that whatever high-flying action he arranges for his protagonists...he doesn't scant their obstinate humanity." Boston Globe Review:"Boyd has written a crackling spy thriller, but more than that, he has evoked the atmosphere of wartime espionage." New York Times About the AuthorWilliam Boyd is the author of eight novels, three collections of short stories, and twelve screenplays that have been filmed. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. He lives in London and southwest France. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!
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