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Restless

Unabridged (Digital download)

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Restless

By: William Boyd
Narrated by: Rosamund Pike
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Bloomsbury presents Restless by William Boyd, read by Rosamund Pike.

READ BY ROSAMUND PIKE

CHOSEN FOR THE DUCHESS OF CORNWALL'S READING ROOM BOOK CLUB

‘Eva Delectorskaya,' I said mystified. ‘ Who's that?'
‘Me,' she said. ‘I am Eva Delectorskaya.'

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. Ruth discovers her mother has one final assignment. This time, though, Eva can't do it alone: she needs Ruth's help.

Restless is a tour de force from William Boyd. Exploring the devastating consequences of duplicity and betrayal it is a gripping novel that 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.©2023 Alexandra Pringle (P)2006 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction Mystery Fiction Exciting Scary Suspense Espionage
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Critic reviews

'The most accomplished storyteller of his generation'
'Boyd has an exceptional ability to tell a really compelling story, in dense imaginative detail, about characters with complex, and convincing, emotional lives'
‘Boyd has combined serious literary intent with an enviable talent for character, storytelling and humour'
All stars
Most relevant
This is the audiobook that did it for me! I'd found audiobooks quite difficult to get into, but that was before i listened to Restless. From the very beginning i was drawn into the world of both the central charachters. The narrator is very good at helping you to decipher between all the charathers as well. And being set all over the world, she did well with all the different accents. I'm now very excited about choosing my next listen!

Captivating!

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Really enjoyed this, great to have a heroine from WW2 and especially a spy. Without giving the plot away, Ava's story through the war was very plausible and I liked that the fact that it went back and forth from the present day, which was in fact the seventies! and then back to the war. Rosamund Pike was a good narrator, however she could have differentiated better between the mother and daughters voices. In all a great audiobook.

Memoirs of a female spy from WW2

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Love William Boyd's way of writing, no words are superfluous, he is challenging and it takes my full attention to follow the plotline, but then I was also rewarded by noticing when he refers to the title, about which another reviewer had remarked that she had no idea where came from.
I also love that this takes place in the 1970s with references to the Baader-Meinhof group (though this ends up being a bit of a distraction, I kept expecting more about this) and the Shah in Iran and the possible treatment of exile-Iranians. The spy story itself is plausible, interesting and much better than most spy thrillers.
Did not exactly love Rosamund Pike's narration, as other reviewers have pointed out, she is not good at men's voices, I think I like her better as an actress.

Intelligent, warm and witty

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A very enjoyable listen with the characters fully developed. The male voices were not convincing at times, but overall, very good narration.

Intriguing tale.

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This was the first William Boyd book I had listened to and it really lent itself to the audio format.

The narration was excellent and really brought the book to life.

It remains one of my top 5 listens.

Excellent read

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