Restless

2006 Costa Book Award winner

Someone is trying to kill Sally Gilmartin. It is the summer of 1976, and the only person she can trust is her daughter, Ruth, a young single mother struggling with her own demons. Now Sally must tell her daughter the truth: She is actually Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian émigré recruited for the British Secret Service in 1939.  Soon Ruth is drawn deeper into the astonishing events of her mothers past, including her work in New York City manipulating the press in order to shift public sentiment toward U.S. involvement in Second World War and her dangerous love affair with another spy. Ruth also discovers that her mother has one final assignment. This time, though, Eva cant do it alone—she needs Ruths help.  Full of tension and drama, emotion and history, this is storytelling at its finest. William Boyd is the author of eight previous novels, including A Good Man in Africa and Any Human Heart, three collections of short stories, and thirteen screenplays that have been filmed. He has been the recipient of many awards, including the 2006 Costa (formerly Whitbread) Novel Award, 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 with his wife in London and southwest France. Winner of the Costa Novel Award Someone is trying to kill Sally Gilmartin. It is the summer of 1976, and the only person she can trust is her daughter, Ruth, a young single mother struggling with her own demons. Now Sally must tell her daughter the truth: She is actually Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian émigré recruited for the British Secret Service in 1939.  Soon Ruth is drawn deeper into the astonishing events of her mothers past, including her work in New York City manipulating the press in order to shift public sentiment toward U.S. involvement in the Second World War and her dangerous love affair with another spy. Ruth also discovers that her mother has one final assignment. This time, though, Eva cant do it alone—she needs Ruths help.  Full of tension and drama, emotion and history, this is storytelling at its finest. "Boyd's ninth novel, an absorbing historical thriller, is loosely based on the history of a covert branch of British intelligence created to coax America into the Second World War. The story unfolds on parallel tracks as Sally Gilmartin, born Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian emigree recruited into the British Secret Service in 1939, reveals her clandestine past in an autobiography that she gives to her daughter, Ruth, a graduate student and single mother living a dull civilian life in Oxford in 1976 . . . Eva describes the taciturn spy who recruited and trained her before becoming her lover; her secret propaganda work in New York; and the act of duplicity, almost deadly, that forced her to flee to England and live under an assumed identity. Ruth barely has time to process the shock of her mother's secret before she is swept into a dangerous game: finding her mother's betrayer before it's too late. An absorbing historical thriller."—The New Yorker "[An] espionage thriller and domestic drama by one of the very best prose stylists and storytellers in the English language."—Atlantic Monthly "The quality of Boyd's prose and the insight he brings to the story make Restless resonate. Told in his characteristically unobtrusive and elegant tone—[Boyd] explores the very idea of spying."—Timothy Peters, San Francisco Chronicle "A gripping and smartly crafted spy thriller set against a fascinating and largely hidden episode in U.S.-British relations."—John Dalton, The Washington Post “Boyd has written a crackling spy thriller, but more than that, he has evoked the atmosphere of wartime espionage: the clubby, grubby moral accommodations, the paranoia, the tense sexuality . . . Boyd's first novel, A Good Man in Africa, was a glinting satire, while An Ice-Cream War combined history, comedy and tragedy to wonderful effect. Here he has used a more muted palette, with no humor, no literary embroidery and little emotion. The pared-down style, clipped and understated, perfectly fits the sepia setting.”—Ben Macintyre, The New York Times  “In his latest novel, Boyd entwines two stories. One, set in England in 1976, focuses on the everyday preoccupations of Ruth Gilmartin, a single mother who teaches English to foreigners in Oxford. Ruth's life changes when her mother, Sally, begins to reveal her past to her daughter. In the early years of World War II, Sally, whose real name is Eva Delectorskaya, was recruited as a spy by British intelligence. Sent to New York in 1941, she spread black propaganda in an attempt to coax the United States into the war. On a mission in New Mexico, Eva was betrayed and had to kill a man to survive. Unable to trust her team, she escaped to Canada and eventually returned to England, where she lives in seclusion under a new identity, waiting for her betrayer to track her down.”—Ron Terpening, University of Arizona, Tucson, Library Journal  “Atmospheric novel about an older woman whose past career as a WWII spy has come back to haunt her. Ruth Gilmartin is a single mother of one in 1976 England. On a visit to Grandma's, Ruth's mother, Sally, informs her that her real name is Eva Delectorskaya, and that she was an agent of British Intelligence during World War II. Eva hands Sally a manuscript of her story, abruptly launching the duo and the reader into the past. Boyd seems more eager to tell Eva's story than Ruth's. Not surprisingly, as the elder Gilmartin finds herself swept into a world on the brink of war in 1939. Recruited by the swarthy and mysterious Lucas Romer, Eva is trained in spycraft and joins Romer's team, specializing in disinformation. Propaganda is Eva's stock in trade, and she has a knack for it. Still, for all her talent, she finds herself attracted to her secretive boss. Boyd has obviously read a few espionage novels. Can any young woman resist James Bond? Ruth leads a far less glamorous life. Saddled with Jochen, her inquisitive son, she teaches English as a Second Language. Her adventures occur vicariously, through the lives of the foreign students who study with her. With a nod to irony, Ruth teaches people to blend into their surroundings. At first, her mother's revelation seems to be a sign of senility. As Ruth begins to investigate, the shadows of her mother's former life reveal themselves. There is some truth to this work of fiction, and the real-life events make for a fascinating backdrop.”—Kirkus Reviews "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, Ruth is understandably surprised. Sally, Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian emigree 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 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

"[Restless] is superbly written, has a hypnotic plot that unfolds in an intellectually interesting fashion, gives us compelling characters whose psychic twists and turns make them seem both real and fascinating...and combines all of these elements into one of the most smoothly readable novels of the year." Chicago Tribune

"The versatile Boyd, writing his first spy story, exhibits all the subtlety so lacking in standard-issue thrillers that clog the top of the best-seller lists. Boyd has inhabited female perspectives in earlier work, and does a laudatory job." Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Boyd's ninth novel, an absorbing historical thriller, is loosely based on the history of a covert branch of British intelligence created to coax America into the Second World War." The New Yorker

"[A]n unnerving examination of identity and duty, calculation and collusion. It is also a superior mother-daughter book, though probably not one that would play on Oprah....Restless is fraught with passion and pain — and painful comedy — but such interstices set it apart." Newsday

"[A] crackling spy thriller...[that] evoke[s] the atmosphere of wartime espionage....The pared-down style, clipped and understated, perfectly fits the sepia setting." Ben Macintyre, The New York Times Book Review

"Restless is one more example of Boydean variousness, as well as large talent....Boyd's special virtue is that whatever high-flying action he arranges for his protagonists...he doesn't scant their obstinate humanity." Boston Globe

"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

"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

"A bit light on action and intrigue, but a cool, collected effort." Kirkus Reviews

"If an espionage thriller...can be called a cozy, this is it....A somewhat clumsy narrative enlivened by some expertly generated suspense." Booklist

"While some readers may be annoyed by the author's stylistic tics...others will enjoy this glimpse of wartime dirty tricks." Library Journal

"[An] espionage thriller and domestic drama by one of the very best prose stylists and storytellers in the English language." Atlantic Monthly

"I am Eva Delectorskaya," Sally Gilmartin announces, and so on a warm summer afternoon in 1976 her daughter, Ruth, learns that everything she ever knew about her mother was a carefully constructed lie. Sally Gilmartin is a respectable English widow living in picturesque Cotswold village; Eva Delectorskaya was a rigorously trained World War II spy, a woman who carried fake passports and retreated to secret safe houses, a woman taught to lie and deceive, and above all, to never trust anyone.

Three decades later the secrets of Sally's past still haunt her. Someone is trying to kill her and at last she has decided to trust Ruth with her story. Ruth, meanwhile, is struggling to make sense of her own life as a young single mother with an unfinished graduate degree and escalating dependence on alcohol. She is drawn deeper and deeper into the astonishing events of her mother's past — the mysterious death of Eva's beloved brother, her work in New York City manipulating the press in order to shift public sentiment toward American involvement in the war, her dangerous romantic entanglement. Now Sally wants to find the man who recruited her for the secret service, and she needs Ruth's help. Restless is a brilliant espionage audiobook 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 listening at its finest.

In December, 2012 The Sundance Channel will air the BBC-produced film RESTLESS starring Charlotte Rampling, Michael Gambon, Hayley Atwell, and Rufus Sewell, based on this novel by William Boyd. Someone is trying to kill Sally Gilmartin. It is the summer of 1976, and the only person she can trust is her daughter, Ruth, a young single mother struggling with her own demons. Now Sally must tell her daughter the truth: She is actually Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian émigré recruited for the British Secret Service in 1939.  Soon Ruth is drawn deeper into the astonishing events of her mothers past, including her work in New York City manipulating the press in order to shift public sentiment toward U.S. involvement in Second World War and her dangerous love affair with another spy. Ruth also discovers that her mother has one final assignment. This time, though, Eva cant do it alone—she needs Ruths help.  Full of tension and drama, emotion and history, this is storytelling at its finest.

In December, 2012 The Sundance Channel will air the BBC-produced film RESTLESS starring Charlotte Rampling, Michael Gambon, Hayley Atwell, and Rufus Sewell, based on this novel by William Boyd. Someone is trying to kill Sally Gilmartin. It is the summer of 1976, and the only person she can trust is her daughter, Ruth, a young single mother struggling with her own demons. Now Sally must tell her daughter the truth: She is actually Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian émigré recruited for the British Secret Service in 1939.  Soon Ruth is drawn deeper into the astonishing events of her mothers past, including her work in New York City manipulating the press in order to shift public sentiment toward U.S. involvement in Second World War and her dangerous love affair with another spy. Ruth also discovers that her mother has one final assignment. This time, though, Eva cant do it alone—she needs Ruths help.  Full of tension and drama, emotion and history, this is storytelling at its finest.

William Boyd is the author of eight novels, including A Good Man in Africa and Any Human Heart, three collections of short stories, and thirteen screenplays that have been filmed. He has been the recipient of many awards, including the 2006 Costa (formerly Whitbread) Novel Award, 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 with his wife in London and southwest France.