Waiting for Sunrise
by William Boyd
- Percentage of approved critics who have given this book a positive review.
Critic Rating
64%
Critic Reviews: 33
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- User rating from iDreamBooks & iTunes
Reader Rating
73%
Reader Ratings: 214
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Synopsis
From one of our most celebrated and imaginative writers comes a spellbinding novel about deception, betrayal, and the mysteries of the human heart "A debonair, versatile, casually philosophical literary entertainer-clever and thoughtful."-New York Times Book Review Vienna, 1913. Lysander Rief, a young English actor, seeking psychotherapy for a troubling ailment, becomes caught up in a feverish affair with a beautiful, enigmatic woman. When she goes to the... more
About William Boyd
Published: April 17, 2012 by Harper Collins
Genre: Action & Adventure, War, Romance. Fiction. 368 pages
- All Critics: 33
- Positive: 23
- Negative: 10
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The New York Times | 4 May 2012
a tantalizing, fast-paced spy novel... a brainteaser, charged with uncertainty and danger, electric with restraint.
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The Washington Post | 16 Apr 2012
Boyd’s prose is often radiant, yet it is a brilliance that serves to illuminate his story... And Boyd’s characters are as beguiling as his prose... The characters spy, lie, betray and kill, and yet never manage to lose their charm.
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The Guardian | 16 Feb 2012
we sense that Boyd is not entirely master of his material, in the sense that the meandering plot seems to have taken charge of the author, rather than vice versa.
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The Star | 5 May 2012
no one writes about the derailed life better than British novelist William Boyd
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The Telegraph | 17 Feb 2012
a gripping story... solid craftsmanship. The sense of place is remarkable
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The Independent | 3 Feb 2012
Boyd guides the reader with a master's hand. It's ages since I read a novel that offers such breathlessly readable narrative enjoyment, such page-by-page storytelling confidence and solidity. Boyd has a positive genius for pace and description.
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BC Books | 9 Apr 2012
Full of historical fact and fiction, Waiting for Sunrise is a thriller that keeps you guessing. The insight and thought put into the characterization of the characters makes you feel as though you know them.
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Huffington Post | 10 Feb 2012
a return to form, and yet it retains a consistent intrigue and a splendidly intricate plot, making the deviation, if it be so deemed, a wholly worthwhile exercise.
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Literary Corner Cafe Blog | 16 Apr 2012
Boyd comes through with a complex and intricately plotted novel, and Lysander, confronted by both his own personal truth and by the limits of his own mortality, is a very different man than he was at the book’s beginning.
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Seattle Times | 22 Apr 2012
Intricate plot points... take over character-driven action in the final stretch. But certain wild-card factors... keep things pleasurably unhinged until the end.
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The National | 16 Mar 2012
Waiting for Sunrise is a mess. The problem is not the ludicrous plot...so much as the half-hearted execution... what is harder to accept is how little Boyd bothers to dress up the haphazard encounters on which his tale depends.
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The Guardian | 17 Feb 2012
Despite efforts to tie them together by means of recurring characters, the parts do not feel interdependent, and none is developed enough to be compelling on its own. The language doesn't help.
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The Independent | 12 Feb 2012
a highly accomplished romantic thriller
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The Telegraph | 10 Feb 2012
Waiting for Sunrise proves that rarest of beasts: a tantalizingly experimental work that is also an immensely satisfying page-turner.
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Kirkus Reviews | 20 Feb 2012
A classy entertainment from the British virtuoso... Boyd’s latest has the irresistible charm of a vintage car that’s still eminently roadworthy. And it’s great fun.
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Literary Review
Waiting for Sunrise moves with suitably Swiss precision. Sometimes it feels almost too frictionless.
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The Globe and Mail | 20 Apr 2012
It’s difficult to convey the pleasures of this novel – so rich with surprises and reversals, so rife with false friends and treacherous “saviours” – without spoiling them... a terrific yarn, but it’s also a complex work full of telling detail and rich in allusions literary, mythical and psychological.
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Salon | 15 Apr 2012
Boyd retrofits a genre full of familiar devices and character types with finer textures and deeper psychology than it typically boasts
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Bookmunch | 27 Feb 2012
there’s probably a decent spy story in there that’s spoiled by a wooden main character. The love story never gets off the ground... it’s riddled with problems, but if you can overlook some dodgy prose and bad characterisation, it’s a quick enough read.
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New Zealand Listener | 23 Mar 2012
Boyd’s problem lies mostly in his ramshackle and hackneyed plot... Disappointing, after the promise of such recent Boyd novels
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A Book A Week Blog | 4 Jun 2012
I liked this spin on the “jaded spy” character who gains the upper hand over his puppetmasters... And I always love it when help comes from unexpected quarters
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Publishers Weekly | 16 Jan 2012
With its adroit plot twists and themes of deception and betrayal, this is an absorbing spy novel that raises provocative questions.
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Bite the Book | 20 Jan 2012
WAITING FOR SUNRISE is William Boyd at the top of his game. If you loved RESTLESS or ANY HUMAN HEART you are in for a treat.
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The Year in Books | 12 Jun 2012
readers might be put off by the sometimes-meandering action or the pointless sidelines... if you're looking for a straight-up, full-on novel of high espionage, this really isn't it
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Dog Ear Discs | 26 Feb 2012
a gripping piece of wartime fiction that throws in plenty of emotion and sex into the mix. William Boyd is a treat to read as his skills explode from the page... Definitely one to read.
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Where Pen Meets Paper | 15 May 2012
Experimentally written, the switches in topic, tone, and even narrative mode don’t deter from the readability of the novel, but rather enhance it.
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Book Reporter | 25 May 2012
He succeeds on every level here and leaves us looking forward to more of his savvy, satisfying fiction.
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Book Group of One | 4 Jun 2012
despite Boyd’s professionalism, despite a structure that included Lysander’s autobiographical jottings... this protagonist feels hollow.
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Head Butler | 23 Apr 2012
The last third of the book is either too brilliantly plotted for a tool like me or it’s a bit more complex than it needs to be.
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Dabbler | 26 Feb 2012
a ripping yarn of intrigue, deception, passion, treason and espionage... an exponent of the almost-lost art of descriptive writing
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NPR | 18 Apr 2012
...on this occasion, elaborate plots, Freudian subtexts and creaky mechanics have overwhelmed the more subtle and elemental task of good novel writing.
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The New York Times | 4 May 2012
...beguiling, suspenseful book...The loosening of social mores over the intervening century has granted Boyd the liberty of injecting more overt sexuality into the clinches...
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The Star | 5 May 2012
No one writes about the derailed life better than British novelist William Boyd.
Full ReviewWaiting for Sunrise