HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd
Loading...

Waiting for Sunrise (original 2012; edition 2012)

by William Boyd

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,0395319,573 (3.58)84
Wrongly accused of rape, Lysander Rief, a young English actor, finds his life taking a dangerous turn when the men who help him escape a conviction recruit him for a lethal mission that leads him to a traitor who is linked to his family.
Member:Alinea
Title:Waiting for Sunrise
Authors:William Boyd
Info:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (2012), Edition: Export/Airside ed, Paperback, 368 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:Vienna, Crimi, Freud, WW II

Work Information

Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd (2012)

Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 84 mentions

English (51)  Spanish (1)  French (1)  All languages (53)
Showing 1-5 of 51 (next | show all)
A wonderful storyteller. He has the ability to transform you to a time in history where often a major event is happening or about to take place. In this instance it is Vienna 1913 and Lysander Rief, an out of work actor is visiting an eminent psychiatrist when the beautiful elfin Hettie Bull walks in. A passionate, and ultimately doomed affair commences that will have long reaching consequences. Meanwhile 1 year later in London Riel is employed by wartime intelligence service to identify the person at the heart of government who is supplying valuable confidential wartime information to the enemy. As always I was swept along with Boyd’s descriptive prose and his very precise sympathetic nod to the events of that time. His books not only entertain but also educate. I was not aware of Turner Cars, founded in Wolverhampton in 1902, who manufactured one of the earliest 2 seater open tourer sports cars simply named the Turner 2 seater. This was the plaything of Lysander’s uncle Hamo, a colourful character, who enjoys a pivotal role in this superb novel. Highly recommended. ( )
  runner56 | Jan 19, 2023 |
For reasons I can’t fathom, I had found myself re-reading a lot of books during 202, even before COVID-19 took such devastating hold, leading to lockdown, and what amounted almost to house arrest. Certainly since the restrictions came into force, I have found it surprisingly difficult to engage with new books, and have found myself returning to old favourites. Thjat mystifies me. I am not aware f feeling any particular anxiety, and, from a wholly selfish perspective, I have really done very well out of the lockdown. As a civil servant normally based in Whitehall, I have been able to continue working (indeed, my department has been busier than ever), so am one of the fortunate few still being paid, but am now saving the £50 per week that I previously spent on commuting. Not being able to wander down to Daunt Books any more means that I haven’t been haemorrhaging money there every weekend, either! I am pretty confident that I am going to have a huge catch-up binge once the restrictions are lifted.

Still, back to the business in hand. This novel is certainly another winner from William Boyd. It bears many of the characteristics of his most successful works - the use parallel texts to allow for different perspectives, the gradual uncovering of characters' secret histories and even (briefly) wrongful imprisonment vaguely reminiscent of "Any Human Heart".

It opens in 1913 with principal character Lysander Rief, a moderately successful actor who is just beginning to make a name for himself on the London stage, having moved temporarily to Vienna, to enable him to access psychoanalytical help for an embarrassing and difficult "condition". He is persuaded by his analyst, Dr Bensimon, to maintain a diary or commonplace book, as a vehicle for the cathartic chronicling of his progress. While attending his first appointment with Dr Bensimon, Rief encounters Hester "Hettie" Bull, with whom he promptly falls deeply in love, despite his hitherto plangent letters to his fiancé, Blanche, who has remained in London.

As luck would have it, on that same day he also meets Alwyn Munro at Dr Bensimon's surgery. Munro is a special attaché at the British Embassy in Vienna. This acquaintance will shortly prove very fortuitous as things are about to go very wrong.

After an unexpectedly adventurous departure from Vienna, Rief finds himself back in London where he tries to resume his acting career, before becoming immersed in Britain's war effort. After having signed up to the East Sussex Light Infantry, and spent some time guarding an internment camp, his former acquaintances catch up with him, and he finds himself reassigned to very different activities, with wholly unexpected consequences.

I don’t want to summarise much further, for fear of inadvertent spoilers. As ever with William Boyd, the plot is entirely believable and the characters immensely plausible. His narrative, and dialogue ring true, even when encompassing the esoterica arising from psychoanalysis or the world of military intelligence. I don’t remember this book stirring the customary eulogies from the reviewers when it was published, which is strange, because I think it is a notable addition to his canon, even if it lacks the fireworks of Restless, its predecessor. To say that William Boyd seems to go from strength to strength might be somewhat superfluous for such an established figure in the literary world, but that does not make it any less true. ( )
  Eyejaybee | May 7, 2020 |
This was very much a novel of two halves: the first was a young man's adventures in Vienna that got a sudden and unexpected end, the second half a First World War with a spying plot where I was struggling to suspend my disbelief when twist after twist turned up. OK as something to read on the bus. ( )
  mari_reads | May 13, 2019 |
Boyd writes well, no denying that. But the story started off as a very strange involvement with the protaganist's psychotherapy that ultimately seemed irrelevant to the novel's plot. The main character's entanglement in espionage derailed the story for me when the story became vicious. There was no upside to continue reading. ( )
  SandyAMcPherson | Jun 28, 2018 |
A fantastic spy novel that kept me tied up to the end.
Lysander Rief, a young English actor, spends some time in Vienna, to be cured by psychiatric help. He gets to know Hettie and joins in an adventure with her. Hettie is a restless person. She becomes pregnant and accuses Lysander. He has to flee Vienna, but he succeeds only with the help of the British secret service. He is now in their clutches and must, in order to pay off his 'debts', fulfill various missions for them. Not only does he put himself at risk, but he also has to discover that his mother plays no inglorious role in the network of espionage.
The story is very varied and exciting. It leads you through the turmoil of WWI. ( )
1 vote Ameise1 | Apr 30, 2018 |
Showing 1-5 of 51 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors (13 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
William Boydprimary authorall editionscalculated
Heinimann, GregCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
A thing is true by first light and alive by noon. (Ernest Hemingway)
Dedication
First words
It is a clear and dazzling summer's day in Vienna.
Quotations
Maybe this is what life is like -- we try to see clearly but what we see is never clear and is never going to be.  The more we strive the murkier it becomes.  All we are left with are approximations, nuances, multitudes of plausible explanations. Take your pick. (p. 345)
Last words
Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

Wrongly accused of rape, Lysander Rief, a young English actor, finds his life taking a dangerous turn when the men who help him escape a conviction recruit him for a lethal mission that leads him to a traitor who is linked to his family.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Vienna, 1913. Lysander Rief, a young English actor in town seeking psychotherapy, is caught up in a feverish affair with a beautiful, enigmatic woman—until she goes to the police to press charges of rape. Only a frenzied getaway plotted by two mysterious British diplomats saves him from trial. But after Lysander returns to a London on the cusp of war, the traumatic ordeal haunts him at every turn. The men who coordinated his escape recruit him to carry out a brutal murder. His lover shows up at a party, ready to resume their liaison. Suddenly plunged into the dangerous theater of wartime intelligence—a murky world of sex, scandal, and spies—Lysander must unravel a secret that threatens Britain's safety.
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.58)
0.5 2
1 5
1.5 1
2 20
2.5 8
3 56
3.5 34
4 109
4.5 15
5 26

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

Recorded Books

An edition of this book was published by Recorded Books.

» Publisher information page

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,277,442 books! | Top bar: Always visible