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Restless  By  cover art

Restless

By: William Boyd
Narrated by: Rosamund Pike
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Editorial reviews

Why we think it's Essential: William Boyd has crafted an espionage thriller that's as good as anything by John Le Carré. Even better, it's narrated by Rosamund Pike, whose careful, measured, and precise performances as the novel's two main characters held me spellbound. Not surprisingly, this production was a multiple Audie Award nominee and winner. Corey Thrasher

Publisher's summary

"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, her dangerous romantic entanglement. Now Sally wants to find the man who recruited her for the secret service, and she needs Ruth's help. William Boyd's Restless is a brilliant espionage audiobook 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 listening at its finest.

©2006 William Boyd (P)2006 Audio Renaissance, a divison of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC

Critic reviews

  • Audie Award Finalist, Fiction, Unabridged, 2007

"This fascinating story is well told." (Publishers Weekly)
"[An] espionage thriller and domestic drama by one of the very best prose stylists and storytellers in the English language." (Atlantic Monthly)

What listeners say about Restless

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Favorite Book of 2007

Restless has it all: richly drawn characters with depth, humanity and wit who find themselves drawn into a believable intrigue that captures you from the first sentence. Boyd's writing elegantly and effortlessly provokes thought on the issues of secrecy, intimacy, loyalty, and love. His grasp of the everyday routine of living adds grace notes of humor and warmth to a first rate story. The narrator is perfect - her intelligent and wry delivery brilliantly delivers Boyd's fascinating story. The combination of excellent writing, two interesting protagonists (one of whom would have made Le Carre's Smiley tip his hat in admiration after a successful dead letter drop) make this my favorite book of 2007!

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40 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Best audiobook I've ever heard

I haven't read this book on paper, though I've listened to it about half a dozen times, so I really don't know how much of my love affair with the story is about William Boyd, and how much to Rosalind Pike's narration.

She is just insanely good -- her reading of the book is intelligent, which can't be underestimated in narration, since its absence is always so cringey. Pike understands the characters and portrays them with sensitivity and respect, and her accents etc are pitch-perfect.

Huge kudos to Boyd as well, of course. The story is a ripsnorter -- war, espionage, betrayal, intrigue... gave me real insight into two historical contexts that he made fascinating and rich.

I listen to audiobooks constantly and have for years. I've listened to hundreds, and this is hands down the best in terms of narration and story. Do yourself a favour.

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

More by this author, please

Please, Audible, let us have more books by this author. This superb story of British secret agent activity in the US during WWII was one of the best boooks I have read in years. Its gripping tale held my attention from cover to cover. It was finely constructed and brilliantly written.

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Terrific Read

I'm not a big fan of spy novels, but this is almost in a class by itself. I was completely caught up in the story. Boyd does the details and the plot of the spy thriller very convincingly. And he's superb on local color as the action switches from England to Europe to the U.S. The reader does a magnificent job.

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful!

A compelling and beautifully written novel about a fascinating time in world history. I listened to it straight through in one weekend. Buy the unabridged version — you won’t want to miss a minute of Boyd’s amazing prose.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

They don't get much better than this.

What secrets do we hold in our hearts? What bitterness and anger do we nurse, anticipating if not revenge, then at least resolution?
When Eva reveals her past as a British spy to her incredulous daughter Ruth, a door is opened into the lives of two formidable women. This novel is three stories, Eva’s story as wartime spy, Ruth’s story as a single mother in 1970’s Britain and finally the story of both woman united by the secret that has kept them apart.
Genre transcending, this story takes us on an absorbing journey through the early years of WW2, from Europe to Britain to the U.S.A to Canada and back to London. It is an exploration of the art of spy-craft, manipulation and deceit. It is insightful study of two young woman, both strong and intelligent, struggling to make a place for themselves in a world from which they are both slightly dislocated.
There is action, intrigue, romance; a clich? free plot and finally an unexpected and satisfying resolution for all concerned. The narration is outstanding, the story is well constructed, the plot ripples and the characters are deeply absorbing. A very worthwhile and highly recommended audio experience.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent writer;excellent reader

I enjoy many Audible selections and am a mystery as well as a novel fan. This book is one of the best listening experiences I have had thus far! The writing is especially fine. The characters are complex and deeply interesting. Haunting and modern. The reader did a wonderful job of portraying them.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Shadow and Light

This could have been a really great book, I think. If only the author wouldn´t have left so many interwoven story lines unsolved. During the course of the narration (which needs a bit of concentration, as the chapters constantly switch between the 1940´s and 1976) you get to meet quite a lot of fellows with a history of their own (potential left-wing and Arab terrorists, for example) that just happen to fade out completety, forgotten threats that are annoying in the end when you come to realize how much more could have been spent on the fascinating story central to this novel.

Thumbs up for Rosamund Pike who delivers a marvelous performance, including an autehntic variety of accents and languages!

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Compelling!

From beginning to the end it keeps you gripped and thinking “where is this going”? If you like intrigue, espionage and drama, you will enjoy Restless. Also, the narration by Rosemund Pike was well done; better than most. You should know that the novel starts well, slows and then meanders towards one of the best conclusions I’ve ever encountered. It kept me interested throughout. With the author titling this book Restless doesn’t do anything to the reader until the very end. Then everything becomes clear.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

What it is like to live as a spy

There is an almost haunting quality to the narration and tone of the book that indicate the level of emotional detachment required to be ready to kill or do things or do seemingly innocuous things that could get her killed. Well, read, well written, and the tone / theme of the books sticks with me months later.

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8 people found this helpful