It's no secret we are big Boyd fans at Mr B's, with Any Human Heart being an inaugural book in our Hall of Fame. For me, Boyd is at his best when there's a strong, complex male protagonist, such as Logan in Any Human Heart and John James Todd in The New Confessions. In Waiting for Sunrise, Boyd doesn't disappoint with Lysander Rief, a young English actor - wonderfully human, flawed and intriguing. For me, this was more rounded and multi-layered than his previous novel Restless. As in many of his other works, this novel seamlessly spans decades and moves across countries, from Vienna to England to Geneva. There are twists and turns and smart, tight prose and this will have huge appeal combining elements of psychological thriller, spy/wartime novel and love story. Big thumbs up from me.
Juliette Bottomley (Wed 9th May 2012)
Publisher synopsis: Vienna, 1913. It is a fine day in August when Lysander Rief, a young English actor, walks through the city to his first appointment with the eminent psychiatrist Dr Bensimon. Sitting in the waiting room he is anxiously pondering the particularly intimate nature of his neurosis when a young woman enters. She is clearly in distress, but Lysander is immediately drawn to her strange, hazel eyes and her unusual, intense beauty. Her name is Hettie Bull. They begin a passionate love affair and life in Vienna becomes tinged with a powerful frisson of excitement for Lysander. He meets Sigmund Freud in a cafe, begins to write a journal, enjoys secret trysts with Hettie and appears - miraculously - to have been cured. Back in London, 1914. War is imminent, and events in Vienna have caught up with Lysander in the most damaging way. Unable to live an ordinary life, he is plunged into the dangerous theatre of wartime intelligence - a world of sex, scandal and spies, where lines of truth and deception blur with every waking day.
Lysander must now discover the key to a secret code which is threatening Britain's safety, and use all his skills to keep the murky world of suspicion and betrayal from invading every corner of his life. Moving from Vienna to London's West End, from the battlefields of France to hotel rooms in Geneva, Waiting for Sunrise is a feverish and mesmerising journey into the human psyche, a beautifully observed portrait of wartime Europe, a plot-twisting thriller and a literary tour de force from the bestselling author of Any Human Heart, Restless and Ordinary Thunderstorms.
ISBN: 9781408817742
Pub. Date: 16th Feb 2012
Pages: 368
Height: 234mm
Width: 153mm
Spine: 30mm
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