Product Description

It is 1939. Eva Delectorskaya is a beautiful 28-year-old Russian emigree living in Paris. As war breaks out she is recruited for the British Secret Service by Lucas Romer, a mysterious Englishman, and under his tutelage she learns to become the perfect spy, to mask her emotions and trust no one, including those she loves most. Since the war, Eva has carefully rebuilt her life as a typically English wife and mother. But once a spy, always a spy. Now she must complete one final assignment, and this time Eva can't do it alone: she needs her daughter's help.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3344 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
'Boyd is English fiction's master storyteller Restless is that rare thing: a spy thriller from a first-rate narrative intelligence' Independent on Sunday 'Fast moving, densely plotted, beautifully observed and probably one of the best things Boyd has done' Esquire 'A good, rollicking read pulls you deep in to the obscure, forgotten intricacies of wartime espionage will keep you turning pages until the end' Observer 'Heart-stoppingly exciting a riveting tale of wartime derring-do' Time Out

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 (Any Human Heart, 2003, etc.) 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. Boyd skillfully manipulates language as easily as Eva does. He handles the plot more roughly. Ruth is clumsy albeit untrained, and the other characters in her world are rather thinly sketched. Yet Boyd fits the puzzle together neatly in the end.A bit light on action and intrigue, but a cool, collected effort. (Kirkus Reviews)

Independent on Sunday
`Boyd is English fiction's master storyteller ... Restless is that
rare thing: a spy thriller from a first-rate narrative intelligence'

Time Out
`Heart-stoppingly exciting ... a riveting tale of wartime
derring-do'

Customer Reviews

The only book I have read twice
It is a year on from reading this book first time round.I could not put the book down and read it in a day.Which for me is a world record!! I was absolutely gripped with the suspense in this book.The parts of the book that were set in the 40's transported me back as if I was standing on an oppostie street corner watching events unfold. I loved this book.

Just good enough to keep you until the end
This is the first William Boyd I have read, other people have told me that they like his writing a lot but I can't see that he is anything very special on this showing. There is quite a nice and subtle WW2 spy/love story at the heart of the book which is pretty convincing and does actually make you want to turn the pages. Unfortunately this is hitched to a 1976 sub plot which is a little bit about life as a single mum and a bit about being politically and culturally aware and the changes in European society none of which goes anywhere or in truth has anything much to do with the main story. Eva, the hero of the WW2 spy bit, is now an old woman and decides in 1976 to rake up and revenge the past with the completely unnecessary help of her daughter. However this part of the action doesn't in fact help to unpick the mystery of what happened to Eva in the war and the explanation is left to an Oxford History Prof to provide in 10 mins flat once he has heard Eva's story - so it would have been easier if Eva had just been to see the prof in the first place. All in all a bit of a mess with just enough in the love/spy interest to keep you going.

Entertaining - but don't think about it too much
I have not previously read any books by William Boyd and enjoyed "Restless", which combines the unfolding story of a spy in World War II with the less-than-thrilling life of her daughter some thirty years later. It would be fair to say that the most exciting thing to have happened to the younger woman is finding out about her mother's past, but the rather self-absorbed character herself might not agree. Some reviewers seem to dislike the sections containing the daughter, Ruth, but I felt that these passages meant Boyd brings out the differences between mother and daughter, and gave a real sense of context to the espionage storyline. Ruth's mother has survived the Second World War as a secret agent with ingenuity and cunning, whereas Ruth struggles to hold her comparatively straightforward life together in peacetime 1970s.

It is easy to get caught up in the pace and danger of the scenes set in the 1940s and turn the pages quickly to see what happens; later reflection throws up some problems with the plot and how far we need to suspend disbelief to appreciate the story, and a close read suggests a few inconsistencies and plot holes that Boyd perhaps skipped over here and there. Some aspects of the book are a little far-fetched, and one twist in particular is easy to guess in advance. I did wonder whether Boyd was trying to make us question the mother's story and how far we should believe everything that we are told about her wartime experiences. Ruth to me is a more realistic and believable character than her mother - her dead-end teaching career, awkward single-parent situation and so on do all seem very true-to-life, and I felt including this character gave the book a realistic grounding that it does not seem to find elsewhere.

All-in-all, "Restless" is not a work of fiction that stands up to a great deal of scrutiny when analysed too closely or considered on reflection once the final page has been turned. However, it is a fun read while it lasts, with genuinely thrilling moments in the spy scenes and a likeable central heroine.