Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3578 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Esquire
`Fast moving, densely plotted, beautifully observed and probably
one of the best things Boyd has done'

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.