Reviewed on Richard & Judy on Wednesday 14 February 2007.

Winner of the Costa Novel Award 2006. 

Judges' comment:  "Beautifully crafted. Boyd gives us a page-turner, despite the story's complex wartime intrigue.  Restless is packed with riveting detail: it is a novel reeking of authenticity."

Sarah Broadhurst's view...
I am an enormous fan of William Boyd although some of his novels are a little disappointing.  Not this one.  I must admit I was surprised to discover that it is actually just a spy story … but what a story.  It begins in 1976 when Ruth discovers her mother is not the cantankerous English lady she was always known, but one Eve Delectorskaya, spy and wartime heroine.  Eve’s wartime story then unfolds alongside the present and more surprises.  This is terrific stuff, beautifully written, suspenseful, compulsive, emotional and historically fascinating.  It’s one hell of a tale.  I loved it.

Comparison: John Le Carré, Sebastian Faulks, Robert Harris.

Synopsis

What happens to your life when everything you thought you knew about your mother turns out to be an elaborate lie? During the long, hot summer of 1976, Ruth Gilmartin discovers that her very English mother Sally is really Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian émigré and one-time spy.
 

In 1939 Eva is a beautiful twenty-eight year old living in Paris. As war breaks out, she is recruited for the British Secret Service by Lucas Romer, a mysterious, patrician Englishman. Under his tutelage she learns to become the perfect spy, to mask her emotions and trust no one. Even those she loves most.

Since then Eva has carefully rebuilt her life — but once a spy, always a spy. And now she must complete one last assignment. This time, though, Eva can't do it alone: she needs her daughter’s help.

Restless is a tour de force. Exploring the devastating consequences of duplicity and betrayal William Boyd’s gripping novel captures the drama of the Second World War and a remarkable portrait of a female spy. Full of suspense, emotion and history, this is storytelling at its very finest.

Reviews

“Boyd has an exceptional ability to tell a really compelling story, in dense imaginative detail, about characters with complex, and convincing, emotional lives.”  Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Serious, provocative and intelligent, Boyd’s writing is endlessly receptive to ideas and always prepared to risk emotion.” Telegraph

About the Author

William Boyd is the author of eight previous novels, many of which have won prizes. A Good Man in Africa  won the Whitbread Literary Award for the Best First Novel; An Ice Cream War won the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker prize; Brazzaville Beach  won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and The Blue Afternoon  was the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. In addition, some thirteen of his screenplays have been filmed and in 1998 he both wrote and directed the feature film, The Trench. Photograph © Jerry Bauer More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation