Having enjoyed previous novels by William Boyd, seeing that the BBC was doing an adaptation of Restless over Christmas. I firstly bought this novel in order to attempt to read it before the show, and then failed reading the novel or watching the TV version.However, I finally got round to reading Restless, and really enjoyed it. It tells the story of Eva, a spy during the early years of the Second World War, during her time in action and in the 1970s, where the tale is told from the perspective of her daughter, a single mother who teaches languages. This means that the novel ticks my love of spy-related things and even Cold War-related things which was great. Boyd's writing style, as I've previously mentioned, is fast paced and managed to make both strands of the novel very engaging. Character-wise, Boyd writes both the women very well. Both Eva and her daughter Ruth are well created and formed, I was a little concerned after Waiting for Sunrise as I felt Hettie was not necessarily the best character. However, Eva in particular was a really intelligent, strong female lead and it was really great to read her. In terms of the other characters, I particularly liked the Iranian student that Ruth was teaching who's desperate attempts to woo her were really quite sweet. Romer, Eva's spymaster, was a really interesting character who the reader, like Eva, hardly truly gets to understand.I'm hoping to get stuck into another Boyd novel soon, he's really becoming a favourite.
