Gabriel's Moon
'A cinematic tale of globe-trotting adventure' Guardian
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4.3 • 95 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
In his most exhilarating novel yet, William Boyd transports you to the vibrant streets of sixties London, as an accidental spy is drawn into the shadows of espionage and obsession . . .
‘William Boyd once again brings to the spy novel his particular storytelling genius. The result is brilliant fun’ MICK HERRON
‘Wonderfully ambiguous with notions of twisted reality and uncertain memory’ ANN CLEEVES
‘A wonderfully intricate novel of espionage and elegant skulduggery’ JOHN BANVILLE
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An accidental spy. A web of betrayals. A mystery that will take you around the world . . .
Gabriel Dax is a young man haunted by the memories of a tragedy: 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 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 the shadows of espionage.
As Gabriel’s reluctant initiation takes hold, he is drawn deeper into duplicity. 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 . . .
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In his most exhilarating novel yet, William Boyd transports you from the vibrant streets of sixties London to the sun-soaked cobbles of Cadiz and the frosty squares of Warsaw in this thrilling adventure.
‘Engaging, intelligent and deeply satisfying. I rate him one of our greatest living novelists’ PETER JAMES
‘I enjoyed it hugely. Boyd is one of my favourite authors – he never disappoints’ KATE ATKINSON
‘Beautifully crafted and pleasingly unpredictable, the work of a man who knows what he is doing and makes it look effortless’ JAMES RUNCIE
‘Simply the best realistic storyteller of his generation’ SEBASTIAN FAULKS
‘There are few reading pleasures as great as giving in to a William Boyd novel’ SUNDAY TIMES
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
William Boyd’s exceptional writing and a breathless spy thriller? Sign us up. This is a great Cold War read featuring deception, deliciously mysterious spy handlers, love interests, manipulation, assassination attempts, conflict between foreign agencies—strap yourself in, basically. Our hero is travel writer Gabriel Dax, who’s recruited by MI6 to travel to Spain and buy a painting from an artist for reasons he doesn’t understand. Soon, he’s plunged into the murky but thrilling world of espionage and a battle with the childhood trauma he can’t quite escape.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Boyd's latest (after The Romantic) is an electric espionage thriller that calls to mind the best of John le Carré and Len Deighton. As a child, Gabriel Dax was caught in a house fire that killed his mother, and insomnia-inducing nightmares of the tragedy have followed him into adulthood. By 1960, Gabriel has become a travel writer who, through a stroke of good luck, is assigned to interview Patrice Lumumba, the prime minister of the newly independent Republic of the Congo. Shortly after their conversation, Lumumba is overthrown by a Congolese colonel, and though Gabriel's editor tells him the tapes are "yesterday's news," unknown parties are bent on acquiring them. First, a mysterious woman bumps into Gabriel at a pub and inquires about the tapes before introducing herself as MI6 agent Faith Green. Then she asks him to deliver a drawing to someone in Spain as a "small favour" for the agency. Though Gabriel is reluctant to court trouble, he's smitten with Faith, so he eventually agrees. Soon, he's taking on ever-more-intricate missions for Faith, unaware he's been tapped to work for MI6 full-time—in part because of his valuable interview with Lumumba, and in part because of slow-to-emerge secrets from his family's past. Boyd's prose is crisp, his dialogue zings, and the heaps of dramatic irony he places on Gabriel's stumble into spyhood buoys the narrative rather than weighing it down. Readers will hope to hear more from Gabriel soon.
