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Restless
by William Boyd
The author's ninth novel combines family drama, a mystery, and (through flashbacks) some WWII espionage, all resulting when a woman discovers that her aging mother was once a British spy.
Bloomsbury, 352 pages
10/2006
$24.95
ISBN: 1596912367
Fiction
General Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...
Boston Globe Richard Eder
Brilliantly twisted plotting.
Chicago Tribune Alan Cheuse
Restless is superbly written, has a hypnotic plot that unfolds in an intellectually interesting fashion, gives us compelling characters whose psychic twists and turns make them seem both real and fascinating, sets marvelous scenes in two time periods...and combines all of these elements into one of the most smoothly readable novels of the year.
San Francisco Chronicle Timothy Peters
But an effective plot isn't the only element that commands attention; the quality of Boyd's prose and the insight he brings to the story make "Restless" resonate.
The Guardian Marianne MacDonald
This is one of the better novels you'll pick up this year and will keep you turning pages until the end.
The Guardian Helen Dunmore
Restless is enormously readable in every respect: a confident, intelligent, ambitious novel.
The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Gale Zoe Garnett
A rich ointment, Restless is a wonderful and addictive book that successfully brings William Boyd into the exalted territory of Graham Greene and John le Carre. [30 Sept 2006, p.D12]
Sydney Morning Herald James Bradley
An easy book to enjoy but a difficult book to admire. Despite its professed interest in betrayal and treachery, it has surprisingly little to say about either...But Restless is almost embarrassingly entertaining.
Washington Post John Dalton
Restless is a gripping and smartly crafted spy thriller set against a fascinating and largely hidden episode in U.S.-British relations. By this measure, the book is an absorbing success.
The New Yorker
An absorbing historical thriller.
The Independent David Mattin
Restless is that rare thing: a spy thriller from a first-rate narrative intelligence.
The New York Times Book Review Ben Macintyre
Boyd has written a crackling spy thriller, but more than that, he has evoked the atmosphere of wartime espionage: the clubby, grubby moral accommodations, the paranoia, the tense sexuality.
Daily Telegraph Tibor Fischer
Chapter by chapter, Boyd relentlessly pumps up the suspense, but as is often the case with books where you're persistently promised a titanic revelation at the end, I found the denouement a little unconvincing, especially compared with the verisimilitude of the preceding chapters.
LA Weekly Brendan Bernhard
As an exercise in genre, Restless brings a fascinating, shadowy sliver of history to light, and the movie’s likely to be pretty good too.
Publishers Weekly
This fascinating story is well told, but slightly undercut by Ruth's less-than-dramatic life as a single mother teaching English at Oxford while pursuing a graduate degree in history. [21 Aug 2006, p.49]
Booklist Connie Fletcher
A somewhat clumsy narrative enlivened by some expertly generated suspense. [1 Aug 2006, p.48]
Kirkus Reviews
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. [15 June 2006, p.589]
The Spectator William Brett
In Restless, he has dared to write half a novel as a female spy, and half as her pretentious daughter. Unfortunately, Ruth's story is not meaty enough to allow the reader to forgive her quietly irritating patter. [16 Sept 2006]
Library Journal Ron Terpening
While some readers may be annoyed by the author's stylistic tics, particularly the profusion of paired adverbs (e.g., people speak "seriously, weightily" and shrug "hopelessly, helplessly"), others will enjoy this glimpse of wartime dirty tricks. [1 Sept 2006, p.134]
The Observer Siddhartha Deb
Restless takes its storytelling duties seriously, presenting us with a struggle that is often as captivating as a good game of chess. If it still feels inconsequential, one can’t help wondering if that says more about the present than it does about the past.
Wall Street Journal Daniel Akst
An enjoyable read, if a little workmanlike.
Los Angeles Times Scott Martelle
Although Boyd, a deft and stylish storyteller, has delivered an enjoyable read, a skein of loose threads leaves a nagging sense of unfinished business.
Daily Telegraph Will Cohu
Restless brushes up against some intriguing subjects, teasing us with the fiction behind historical certainties – that "special relationship" with America – but it does not pause to explore things.
The Independent Patrick Gale
It cannot have been cheap for Bloomsbury to lure Boyd away from Penguin; they could surely have afforded an editor with sufficient courage to tell him that the acquisition needed another draft.
 The average user rating for this book is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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