Restless

August 21, 2006
When Ruth Gilmartin learns the true identity—and the WWII profession—of her aging mother, Sally Gilmartin, at the start of Boyd's elegant ninth novel (after Any Human Heart
), Ruth is understandably surprised. Sally, née Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian émigré living in Paris in 1939, was recruited as a spy by Lucas Romer, the head of a secretive propaganda group called British Security Coordination, to help get America into the war. This fascinating story is well told, but slightly undercut by Ruth's less-than-dramatic life as a single mother teaching English at Oxford while pursuing a graduate degree in history. Ruth's more pedestrian existence can't really compete with her mother's dramatic revelations. The contemporary narrative achieves a good deal more urgency when Ruth's mother recruits her to hunt down the reclusive, elusive Romer. But the real story is Eva/Sally's, a vividly drawn portrait of a minor figure in spydom caught up in the epic events leading up to WWII.

Rosamund Pike's transitions are seamless as she brings together an aging mother's revealing memoir and a plot of revenge involving both the mother and her daughter. Pike's muted tones reflect the puzzlement of daughter Ruth as she discovers that her mother, Sally Gilmartin, was actually Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian Émigré, who became Eve Dalton, a spy for the British Secret Service in 1939. Pike's serene account captures Sally's habits of calm watchfulness, learned early and practiced throughout her life as she is caught up in intrigues that challenge her age, intelligence, and training. Most troubling are residual worries that trouble Eve long after she escapes the Secret Service and that make her daughter, and listeners, wonder if her restlessness is inescapable. S.W. 2007 Audies Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine


Drab English teacher Ruth Gilmartin is astonished when her mother, Sally, reveals that she is really Eva, a Russian Émigré recruited by the Brits to manipulate the press to force the U.S. into WWII. Her British spymaster, and lover, Lucas Romer, betrays Eva, and she must assume other identities to escape Romer's death sentence. Incomparable British actress Rosamund Pike plays the two women with compassion and verve as the story follows the parallel lives of mother and daughter. She shows her greatest skill in the climax when she superbly portrays not only Sally and Ruth, but the despicable Romer as well, in a stunning confrontation. M.T.B. 2007 Audies Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine