My Rating - 3 out of 5 stars
Publisher - BloomsburyGenre - Historical Fiction/Thriller
Publishing year - 2006
Language - English
ISBN - 978-0-7475-8620-3
Pages - 325
Book Review -
Restless is my first read by the author William Boyd and my main reason to pick this book is that it is the Winner of the Costa Novel Award 2006, so I thought it was worth choosing. While this book was sitting on my shelf for a long time, now I finally managed to read it.
It is a story about Eva Delectorskaya, a 28-year-old Russian who lives in Paris with her father and stepmother. Eva's brother was killed, and she realized that he was working with some secret agency, and now the same agency was trying to recruit her.
Her whole life changed when she decided to become a spy; she was taught never to trust anyone, even the person you think you can trust is not trustworthy. But all this goes in vain when she falls in love with a colleague. Eva was betrayed and left to die; she spent all her life running and plotting revenge.
As the title suggests, from start to end, Eva was restless, never let her guard down, and always looked out for the things ordinary people wouldn't notice. But, of course, it was her training that helped in her survival. Finally, Eva decides to share her story with Ruth, and the narrative goes with the past and present life of Eva and Ruth simultaneously.
With many complex characters, double agents, secret agencies, and hidden agendas, BSC (British Security Co-ordination), set up by MI6, and what they were doing in the USA before the Pearl Harbour attack is the central theme of this book.
It is about a spy, but the narrative is dull instead of thrilling. I often felt that it could have been much better if the author had put much effort into developing the characters. But, overall, this is the kind of book that helps you get over your reading slump. Pick this one if you like spy books with historical fiction backgrounds.
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