FICTION

Waiting for Sunrise

by William Boyd
Harper: HarperCollins. Apr. 2012. c.368p. ISBN 9780061876769. $25.99. F
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Intent on resolving an intimacy problem, British stage actor Lysander Rief travels to 1913 Vienna to undergo psychoanalysis. In Dr. Bensimon's waiting room, he meets an intense, beautiful sculptor named Hettie Bull. Though their passionate, destructive affair helps "cure" him, Hettie's betrayal sets in motion a series of events that lands Lysander in jail and eventually leads to his hasty escape back to London—with the help of two shadowy British diplomats who exact recompense. Soon, Lysander becomes enmeshed in the intrigues of wartime intelligence as World War I breaks out across Europe. With intelligence and humor, acclaimed author Boyd (A Good Man in Africa; Restless) explores the themes of truth and betrayal in the human psyche, with a cameo appearance of Sigmund Freud himself.
VERDICT In this thriller for the intellectual set, the skilled Boyd has developed his characters with depth and crafted an exciting plot that moves along at quite a clip. [See Prepub Alert, 11/1/11.]
Reviewed by Gwen Vredevoogd, Marymount Univ., Arlington, VA , Feb 15, 2012
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