Sally Gilmartin can’t escape her past.Living in the idyllic English
countryside in 1976, Sally is haunted by her experiences during the
Second World War. She also suspects someone is trying to kill her.
With mounting fear, Sally confides with her daughter Ruth; a woman
struggling with her own past. Sally drops a bombshell. She is
actually Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian émigré recruited as a spy by
the British prior to the Second World War. For the past thirty years,
Eva has led a second life hiding from the ghosts of her past.Eva
reveals her secret to her daughter through a series of written
chapters for a planned book. As Ruth delves into her mother’s
writing, she learns the shocking truth. Eva was recruited in Paris
prior to the Second World War, following the death of her brother
Kolia; also a British spy. Taught by an enigmatic spymaster named
Lucas Romer, Eva learned the art of espionage and was made part of a
unit specializing in media manipulation. Above all, she was taught
‘Rule Number One’ of spying: trust no one — a rule broken when she
and Romer began a dangerous love affair. The affair had tragic
consequences. In 1941, Eva and Romer were assigned to the United
States. They were given the task of manipulating the American media
into motivating the public to support entry into the war on the
Allied side. While in New York, Eva’s affair with Romer set in motion
events that culminated in her betrayal and her flight from the
British Secret Services. She found eventual refuge in a new life as
Sally Gilmartin.Thirty years later, Eva’s identity unravels with her
confession to her daughter. Ruth struggles with the truth, and her
own recent past fills her with self-doubt and insecurity. A failed
relationship in Germany resulted in a son and an eventual return to
England. Her mother’s confession leads Ruth to the realization that
her mother is entangling her in one final mission — a showdown with
Eva’s past betrayer. Restless twists and turns through the double
life of one remarkable woman. Through Eva’s life, William Boyd asks
the intriguing question — How well do we truly know someone?From the
Hardcover edition.
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