Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war.

In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II. Yet Boyd fits the puzzle together neatly in the end.Ī bit light on action and intrigue, but a cool, collected effort. Ruth is clumsy albeit untrained, and the other characters in her world are rather thinly sketched. Boyd skillfully manipulates language as easily as Eva does. There is some truth to this work of fiction, and the real-life events make for a fascinating backdrop. As Ruth begins to investigate, the shadows of her mother’s former life reveal themselves. At first, her mother’s revelation seems to be a sign of senility. With a nod to irony, Ruth teaches people to blend into their surroundings.

Her adventures occur vicariously, through the lives of the foreign students who study with her.

Saddled with Jochen, her inquisitive son, she teaches English as a Second Language. Can any young woman resist James Bond? Ruth leads a far less glamorous life. Boyd has obviously read a few espionage novels. Still, for all her talent, she finds herself attracted to her secretive boss. Propaganda is Eva’s stock in trade, and she has a knack for it. Recruited by the swarthy and mysterious Lucas Romer, Eva is trained in spycraft and joins Romer’s team, specializing in disinformation. Not surprisingly, as the elder Gilmartin finds herself swept into a world on the brink of war in 1939. Boyd ( Any Human Heart, 2003, etc.) seems more eager to tell Eva’s story than Ruth’s. Eva hands Sally a manuscript of her story, abruptly launching the duo and the reader into the past. On a visit to Grandma’s, Ruth’s mother, Sally, informs her that her real name is Eva Delectorskaya, and that she was an agent of British Intelligence during World War II. Ruth Gilmartin is a single mother of one in 1976 England. Atmospheric novel about an older woman whose past career as a WWII spy has come back to haunt her.

Restless by William Boyd