''Restless'' is an espionage novel written by

William Boyd William, Willie, Will or Bill Boyd may refer to: Academics * William Boyd (educator) (1874–1962), Scottish educator * William Boyd (pathologist) (1885–1979), Scottish-Canadian professor and author * William Alexander Jenyns Boyd (1842–1928), ...

, published in 2006. It won the Costa Prize for fiction. The novel depicts the tale of a young woman who discovers that her mother was recruited as a spy during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The book continually switches between time periods and, in doing so, from first to third person. According to the author, it is one of the first novels to deal with the

British Security Coordination British Security Co-ordination (BSC) was a covert organisation set up in New York City by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in May 1940 upon the authorisation of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. Its purpose was to investigate ...

service in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. The book gained general public interest when it was chosen for inclusion in 'Book Club 2007', on the UK television show ''

Richard & Judy ''Richard & Judy'' (also known as ''Richard & Judy's New Position'') is a British television chat show presented by the married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. The show originally aired on Channel 4 from 26 November 2001 to 22 Augus ...

''. It is the first Boyd novel to heavily feature espionage, others include; Waiting for Sunrise (2012), Solo (2013) his

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

continuation novel A continuation novel is a sequel novel with continuity in the style of an established series, produced by a new author after the original author's death. Continuation novels may be official, produced with the permission of the late author's lite ...

and

Gabriel's Moon ''Gabriel's Moon'' is the eighteenth novel by British author William Boyd (writer) , William Boyd, published in 2024, by Viking Penguin. Set against the backdrop of the Cold War in the early 1960s, the book follows Gabriel Dax, a travel writer ...

(2024).

Plot summary

Eva, a young

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

woman, is recruited after her brother's death to work for the

British secret service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 (MI numbers, Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of Human i ...

. During this time she falls for her mentor and boss, Lucas Romer. But all is not as it seems as Romer is working as a

double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...

which ultimately leads to the attempted murder of Eva, alongside the deaths of other agents. The tale is interlinked with the story of Eva's daughter in the 1970s and how she comes to terms with the discovery of her mother's secret life. The setting of the novel is

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, Scotland, continental Europe, and the United States.

Reception

Marianne MacDonald, for ''The Observer'', said that Boyd's novel was "a good, rollicking read...Restless pulls you deep into the obscure, forgotten intricacies of wartime espionage, in particular the covert operations run by the British in America before Pearl Harbor". David Mattin, reviewing ''Restless'' for ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', described the book's ending as "both page-turning and deft, leaving us with a moving feeling that it is our histories, and our ever-changing, private interpretations of them, that render us ultimately unknowable. Restless is that rare thing: a spy thriller from a first-rate narrative intelligence."

Adaptation

In December 2012 the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

aired a two-part TV adaptation based on the novel. It was produced by

Hilary Bevan Jones Hilary Bevan Jones is a British television producer. In 1994 she started Endor Productions, choosing the name from that of the novel ''The Road to Endor'' by E. H. Jones, her grandfather.Edward Hall Edward Hall ( – ) was an English lawyer and historian, best known for his #Chronicle, ''The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke''—commonly known as ''Hall's Chronicle''—first published in 1548. He was ...

and featured

Hayley Atwell Hayley Elizabeth Atwell (born 5 April 1982) is an English and American actress. After appearing in various West End productions, Atwell gained popularity for her roles in period dramas, appearing in the films ''Brideshead Revisited'' (2008), '' ...

Rufus Sewell Rufus Frederik Sewell (; born 29 October 1967) is a British actor. In film, he has appeared in ''Carrington (film), Carrington'' (1995), ''Hamlet (1996 film), Hamlet'' (1996), ''Dangerous Beauty'' (1998), ''Dark City (1998 film), Dark City'' (1 ...

Michelle Dockery Michelle Suzanne Dockery (born 15 December 1981) is an English actress. She is best known for starring as List of Downton Abbey characters#Lady Mary Talbot, Lady Mary Crawley in the ITV (TV network), ITV television period drama series ''Downton ...

Michael Gambon Sir Michael John Gambon (; 19 October 1940 – 27 September 2023) was an Irish-English actor. Gambon started his acting career with Laurence Olivier as one of the original members of the Royal National Theatre. Over his six-decade-long career ...

and

Charlotte Rampling Tessa Charlotte Rampling (born 5 February 1946) is an English actress. An icon of the Swinging London, Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model. She was cast in the role of Meredith in the 1966 film ''Georgy Girl'', which starred Lynn ...

References

Source

*Boyd, William. ''Restless'',

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...

, 2006,

External links

* * * William Boyd, winner of the 2006 Costa Novel Award, talks about his book, ''Restless'

Costa Book Awards The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in United Kingdom, UK and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first ...

. 19 February 2007. Retrieved 10 April 2020. * William Boyd reading a section from ''Restless'' (video

. 30 May 2008. Retrieved 10 April 2020. {{DEFAULTSORT:Restless (Novel) 2006 British novels Bloomsbury Publishing books British spy novels Costa Book Award–winning works Fiction set in 1976 British novels adapted into television shows Novels by William Boyd (writer) Novels set in London Novels set in Oxford Novels set in Scotland Novels set in the United States