Gabriel is a travel writer living in London in the early Sixties While in the Congo he is asked to interview the president This sets in motion a sequence of events which involves him making secret expeditions to Franco s Spain and behind the Iron Curtain His life changes dramatically and he gets involved in a very shadowy world of spies during the Cold War. I m a big fan of William Boyd s books and this one doesn t disappoint Gabriel is an interesting character caught in a mystifying web of intrigue He s also a victim of his past his mother died in a house fire in which he managed to escape from.
Reminiscent of le Carr Very enjoyable read with Gabriels s back story as a travel writer and his journeys for his book research neatly woven into the plot that sees him going to places he hadn t planned or particularly wanted to visit Another five star read from one of my favourite authors With thanks for the e ARC to read and review 0241542073 William Boyd is just a great storyteller and here he tells a compelling story. It s 1960 and Gabriel is an English travel writer and occasion freelance journalist While on assignment in Africa he is given the opportunity to interview the new leader of the volatile Independent Republic of the Congo By the time he s finished the article the leader has been deposed and his newspaper turns down the opportunity to run it However somehow perhaps there s a connection.
Perhaps not he s come onto the radar of MI6 who view his occupation as the perfect cover for some small jobs He takes one on out of interest and then finds himself increasingly caught up in something that he can t control. It s an engaging and twisting story when you re not sure who can be trusted and who s telling the truth It has a wonderful sense of time and place Gabriel is a complicated character and I enjoyed spending time with him Boyd has breathed new life into a genre popularised by John le Carre and Graham Greene I received an ARC via Net Galley 0241542073 In his most exhilarating novel yet.
Patrice Lumumba On his return to England however he finds himself becoming embroiled in the work of a shadowy organisation through contact with the beautiful and mysterious Faith Green Having done various errands previously for his brother Faith persuades Gabriel to do several jobs which leads him into increasingly dangerous situations Boyd also provides us with an entertainjng sub plot dealing with Gabriel s family background and the loss of his mother at the age of 6 for which he has always blamed himself. Both stories are equally interesting and the writing is excellent It s a truly engaging book and I looked forward to reading it I certainly didn t want to rush through it and miss anything Gabriel is an unlikely hero and the other characters are wonderfully shady For me this was a return to the Boyd of Ice Cream Wars and a Good Man in Africa Highly recommended. Thankyou to Netgalley and Penguin for the advance review copy 0241542073 not bad i liked this one.
When he was six years old and which has left him with sleep problems There s romance espionage and psychology all mixed in Plus some mystery and twists along the way in a gripping read Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Viking for an ARC in return for an honest and fair review 0241542073 I find William Boyd s books Marmite some I can engage with others do nothing at all. On his return to the UK life feels unsettled his flat has been searched unfamiliar people take an interest in him His brother who is some sort of government official wants him to do a little job. The book is a slow burn in the same way that Gabriel is drawn in to world of espionage without really realising what is happening and finds himself trapped rather like the mice he is battling with in his flat Beautifully written and totally enjoyable I hope Gabriel flourishes in his new world Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin General UK for the opportunity to read this book 0241542073 William Boyd is an excellent writer he seems to write smoothly if that is possible and i found myself three quarters through this book very quickly He tells an engaing tale through his protaginist a travel writer called Gabriel Dax It is mainly set in the 1960s and references real events throughout The prologue is set in the 1930s when the hero is only 6 years old and suffers a tragedy that causes him problems in sleeping many years later He is on a quest to find out what happened to him age 6 of which he has no memory but also to find out about himself as an adult what he is truly capable of doing and being He is also travelling through Europe at a time of the Cold War to research his latest book on rivers This leads to much and when Dax meets the mysterious Faith Green the story takes off No spoilers If you have read a lot of Boyd and I have there is a familiarity between Gabriel and other Boyd characters I guess they have their roots in Boyd himself to some extent well travelled public school educated and who displays a wealth of knowledge of the arts and global politics They are attractive beings I recommend this novel as an engaging well written story I read a proof copy provided by NetGalley and the publishers 0241542073 One never knows what to expect from a William Boyd novel apart from excellent writing wonderful vocabulary and a good plot This spy thriller with Gabriel as the main character is very much of its genre Britain s greatest storyteller transports you from the vibrant streets of sixties London to the sun soaked cobbles of Cadiz and the frosty squares of Warsaw as an accidental spy is drawn into the shadows of espionage and obsession Gabriel Dax is a young man haunted by the memories of a every night when sleep finally comes he dreams about his childhood home in flames His days are spent on the move as an acclaimed travel writer capturing the changing landscapes in the grip of the Cold War When he s offered the chance to interview a political figure his ambition leads him unwittingly into a web of duplicities and betrayals As Gabriel s reluctant initiation takes hold he is drawn deeper into the shadows Falling under the spell of Faith Green an enigmatic and ruthless MI6 handler he becomes her spy unable to resist her demands But amid the peril paranoia and passion consuming Gabriel s new covert life it will be the revelations closer to home that change the rest of his story Sheer truly brilliant storytelling He has probably written classic books than any of his contemporaries Daily Telegraph If it s true escapism you re after William Boyd can always be relied upon to transport the reader from reality Vogue A master storyteller Observer Gabriel s MoonA really exciting novel with all the twists and turns you d expect to encounter in Cold War Europe 0241542073 I enjoyed this latest Boyd much than The Romantic It felt to me like earlier works which I preferred The story centres around Gabriel Dax a travel writer who whilst in the Congo is asked to interview the new Prime Minister and architect of independence even though it took me a while to get through knitting has taken ALL of my time 0241542073 Gabriel Dax is a successful travel writer just into his thirties He knows the importance of the full plum pudding and readers evidently love his theatrical prose He s a lucky man he has an adoring girlfriend a supportive publisher and the excuse to travel wherever he fancies for his work Aside from a persistent mouse problem in his Chelsea flat one could surmise that the world s his oyster. However Gabriel s an insomniac He was orphaned at the age of six when his mother dies in a house fire which he believes was started by his moon shaped nightlight In his mind the object of comfort is transformed into one of horror Since then although he s been kindly brought up by his affectionate uncle Aldous and is on cordial terms with his brother Sefton he suffers from night terrors There s a mother shaped hole in his life of which he is aware He admits to his therapist that he would like nothing than to love someone unconditionally. William Boyd s na ve clever brave selfish and sometimes downright obtuse central character is perfect spy material So thinks the charismatic enigmatic MI6 Faith Green who reminds Gabriel regularly that he is her spy once he has agreed to carry out a mundane task as part of his travel arrangements There s the catch Once in perhaps impossible to leave And then of course Gabriel is implicated in ways far complex that he could imagine resulting in some out of the ordinary behaviour After such an event he recognises that What had just happened had changed him in a profound way he saw a crucial way and everything about him was different now Not only is Gabriel s Moon a real page turner the author has also conjured a suitably ruthless murky yet credible world of agents and double dealings Faith Green understands that Gabriel s vulnerabilities make him her perfect spy The reader can see that she is his undoing Another excellent novel brilliantly written from the marvellous William Boyd. Gabriel Dax is a successful travel writer in the early 1960s his older brother does something vague in the Foreign Office Occasionally in the course of his travels Gabriel can do his brother a favour by leaving a message or dropping off an envelope. Gabriel has a problem with insomnia resulting from trauma caused when his family home burnt down and his mother died when he was an infant To help him with this he visits a psychiatrist who attempts to help him regain lost memories of the event. Events in Gabriel s life begin to take unexpected routes when by chance in the recently independent Congo he is invited to interview the beleaguered president Patrice Lumumba This is shortly before Lumumba is overthrown and murdered Gabriel s tape of the interview contain information various agencies would like kept secret or destroyed It is at this point that Faith Green of MI6 enters Gabriel s life and he and others close to him become increasingly endangered. As always with William Boyd this is an entertaining story well written and containing all sorts of incidental pleasures Gabriel has to try to work out how and why the interview with Mumumba has caused so many perilous ripples and who are the real enemies The Soviets or those much closer to home More like Restless than The Romantic this is something of a thriller though episodic and much thoughtful and realistic than most novels of that genre I liked it and as Gabriel like the mouse in his flat falls deeper into the traps set for him 0241542073
| Gabriel's Moon By William Boyd |
| 0241542073 |
| 9780241542071 |
| English |
| Paperback |
Note William BoydOf Scottish descent Boyd was born in Accra Ghana on 7th March 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father a doctor Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him. At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school in Moray Scotland and then Nice University Diploma of French Studies and Glasgow University MA Hons in English and Philosophy where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian He then moved to Jesus College Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic then he re Note William BoydOf Scottish descent Boyd was born in Accra Ghana on 7th March 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father a doctor Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him. At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school in Moray Scotland and then Nice University Diploma of French Studies and Glasgow University MA Hons in English and Philosophy where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian He then moved to Jesus College Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda s College 1980 83 It was while he was here that his first novel site_link A Good Man in Africa 1981 was published. Boyd spent eight years in academia during which time his first film Good and Bad at Games was made When he was offered a college lecturership which would mean spending time teaching he was forced to choose between teaching and writing. Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 Best of Young British Novelists in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year and is also an Officier de l Ordre des Arts et des Lettres He has been presented with honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of St Andrews Stirling and Glasgow He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005. Boyd has been with his wife Susan since they met as students at Glasgow University and all his books are dedicated to her His wife is editor at large of Harper s Bazaar magazine and they currently spend about thirty to forty days a year in the US He and his wife have a house in Chelsea West London but spend most of the year at their chateau in Bergerac in south west France where Boyd produces award winning wines site_link., Gabriel Dax is a travel writer his youth blighted by a childhood trauma but living a settled life in 1960s London. While in the Congo he is drawn into the local politics when offered an interview with the country s president, Add to this a girl friend who works in a Wimpy Bar an analyst who is addressing the childhood trauma and a very attractive woman who may be a spy, My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General UK Fig Tree for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review 0241542073 Once a spy.I m pleased to say that I loved this one