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Restless
- Narrated by: Rosamund Pike
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
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Restless
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Summary
Shortlisted for the British Book Awards, Richard and Judy Best Read, 2007.
Winner of the Costa Book Awards, Novel of the Year, 2006.
A Richard and Judy Book Club selection.
"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.
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Editor reviews
Critic reviews
"Pike's accomplished performance of Boyd's intelligent page-turner shows, through their voices, the developing relationship between the women and easily lives up to the author's entertaining characterisations of minor characters."( The Sunday Times)
What listeners say about Restless
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Alan
- 17-07-07
Excellent trip into the world of WWII Spies!
A definite 5 star book despite 2 chapters being recorded in the wrong order. Don't worry, this won't spoil the book in any way, it just makes you think, 'hang on, have I missed something?'. It quickly sorts itself out and the chapters in question are very short.
The trip into the world of espionage is fascinating as is the tie back to present day (well, 1976). I won't say anymore apart from - go buy!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Clare
- 09-08-07
Un-put-downable!
This really has to be my favourite audiobook so far. I was totally engrossed in Restless and found myself listening at every opportunity. Rosamund Pike (she played Frost in 007?s Die Another Day) does a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life and I couldn?t imagine reading it without all the different accents she manages to do so well. I think she really makes this a fabulous listen and I was quite lost when it ended. Not my usual type of book but I really feel like I have been given a true insight into espionage in the second world war and this has left me wanting more of the same.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Joan
- 03-02-07
Unmissable!
Absolutely terrific. The story is complex, but always makes complete sense, and is totally believable. It's a tale of espionage in the Second World War and is both gripping and fascinating as we learn of the life of a young woman spy. Interwoven with that is the story of the same spy a generation later and her relationship with her adult daughter.
This audiobook is wonderfully well read by Rosamund Pike and is hugely enjoyable and satisfying.
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29 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Oliver
- 24-11-22
His best
I’ve read a few of William Boyd’s books - or rather I’ve listened to the audiobooks - but none have I returned to more often than Restless. A naturally written, compulsive psychological thriller set in war time USA and 1970s U.K., it’s effortlessly exciting and profoundly moving.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Coleen
- 08-03-07
throughly enjoyable
This book is well paced, utterly intriguing, and a thoroughly enjoyable, easy read.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mel Walton
- 27-04-24
Greatly observed
Excellently paced reading of clever prose with artfully observed touches and a underlying strong narrative
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- chris
- 30-04-07
Great suspense
Terrific WW2 spy story interwoven with 70's intrigue in Oxford, with international influences from Germany (Bader Meinhof) and Iranian revolution. Compelling story, told with great vocabulary and well narrated. Have had my ear phones in at every available opportunity.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- David
- 15-07-07
Overrated
Considering the prestige etc. of this book the actual read was dissapointing. Not overly long the book would have been better being around 25% shorter. The story itself is good; although quite why the heroine sahould 'run off' at the part she does in the story seems odd. Other side stories are dull and uninteresting and add little or no value.
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