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Restless
“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, and 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 book 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 fiction at its finest.
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, and 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 book 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 fiction at its finest.
336 pages, Paperback
First published September 4, 2006
About the author
William Boyd
70 books2,738 followersNote: William^^Boyd
Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.
At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland and then Nice University (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow University (MA Hons in English and Philosophy), where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian. He then moved to Jesus College, Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley. For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic, then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda's College (1980-83). It was while he was here that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), was published.
Boyd spent eight years in academia, during which time his first film, Good and Bad at Games, was made. When he was offered a college lecturership, which would mean spending more time teaching, he was forced to choose between teaching and writing.
Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year, and is also an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has been presented with honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of St. Andrews, Stirling and Glasgow. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.
Boyd has been with his wife Susan since they met as students at Glasgow University and all his books are dedicated to her. His wife is editor-at-large of Harper's Bazaar magazine, and they currently spend about thirty to forty days a year in the US. He and his wife have a house in Chelsea, West London but spend most of the year at their chateau in Bergerac in south west France, where Boyd produces award-winning wines.
Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.
At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland and then Nice University (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow University (MA Hons in English and Philosophy), where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian. He then moved to Jesus College, Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley. For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic, then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda's College (1980-83). It was while he was here that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), was published.
Boyd spent eight years in academia, during which time his first film, Good and Bad at Games, was made. When he was offered a college lecturership, which would mean spending more time teaching, he was forced to choose between teaching and writing.
Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year, and is also an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has been presented with honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of St. Andrews, Stirling and Glasgow. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.
Boyd has been with his wife Susan since they met as students at Glasgow University and all his books are dedicated to her. His wife is editor-at-large of Harper's Bazaar magazine, and they currently spend about thirty to forty days a year in the US. He and his wife have a house in Chelsea, West London but spend most of the year at their chateau in Bergerac in south west France, where Boyd produces award-winning wines.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 11, 2026
Ruth Gilmartin arvab, et tema emal Sallyl on luulud ja dementsus, kui too hakkab rääkima sellest, et keegi jälgib ja püüab teda tappa. Oma loo tõestuseks söödab ta tütrele jupikaupa ette peatükke enda elust spioonina II maailmasõja ajal, millest tütrel polnud aimugi. Lugu kulgeb kahe ajaperioodi vahel: 1976 aasta hirmkuumal suvel Inglismaal ning 1938-1946. Pinge kruvib iga peatükiga ning lõpuks oled ise ka omandanud teatud spioonioskused - püüad tabada, kes võiks olla "vaim" ehk reetur. Tõde on muidugi korraga uskumatult lihtne ja uskumatult keeruline.
Inimhinge keerukusest, reeturlikkusest ja saatuse keerdkäikudest kantud lugu. Miks ühed reedavad, toovad teised silmagi pilgutama ohvriks, miks ühte hoitakse ja teist mitte. Omajagu põnev oli jälgida tollaseid võtteid avalikkuse ja vaenlase eksitamiseks. Nüüd tehakse seda läbi sotsiaalmeedia, siis läbi ajakirjanduse ja infoagentuuride võltsuudiseid tootes.
Inimhinge keerukusest, reeturlikkusest ja saatuse keerdkäikudest kantud lugu. Miks ühed reedavad, toovad teised silmagi pilgutama ohvriks, miks ühte hoitakse ja teist mitte. Omajagu põnev oli jälgida tollaseid võtteid avalikkuse ja vaenlase eksitamiseks. Nüüd tehakse seda läbi sotsiaalmeedia, siis läbi ajakirjanduse ja infoagentuuride võltsuudiseid tootes.
March 1, 2021
Lugu oli väga põnev ja hästi üles ehitatud, samuti meeldivad mulle aina enam vahelduva tegevuspaiga/aja/peategelasega raamatud. Aga keeleliselt oli see pigem nagu filmilinal toimuva kirjeldus ja ei pakkunud kirjanduslikus mõttes väga palju. Samuti häiris mind see wannabe-bondilik seksuaalsus iga nurga peal.
February 21, 2022
William Boyd on väga hea kirjanik. Väga põhjalik on olnud autori eeltöö ennast romaani temaatikaga kurssi viimiseks ja selleks, et seda kõike detailselt ja elavalt kirjeldada. Romaan räägib noorest naisest, kes värvatakse teise maailmasõja ajal inglise salaluuresse, tema tööst ja elust salaluure agendina ja reetmisest ja põgenemisest ja elust hirmu märgi all. Paralleelloona kulgeb jutustus tänapäevas, mil noorest agendist on saanud eakas proua ja ta otsustab oma mineviku saladuse oma tütrele avaldada. Minu jaoks jäid spiooniülesannete kirjeldused veidi kaugeks, aga see on minu omapära, et spioonielu mind väga ei haara.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews