Waiting For Sunrise by William Boyd

 

The novel opens in Vienna in 1913.  A young man, Lysander Rief, has come to Vienna to seek the help of a new kind of doctor, a psychoanalyst.  Lysander is an Englishman and an actor.  His father was a famous actor before his death and his mother is now a Lady after her remarriage.  Lysander is having a sexual problem and needs help.  His doctor gives him some tools to try but then he meets Hettie and his problems seem to be solved.  Hettie is a fascinating woman, the common law wife of painter and a sculptor herself.  The two have a torrid affair that ends badly with Rief fleeing Vienna ahead of the law and a baby neither planned on having.

Due to the help Rief received from the British Embassy in his departure, he owes a debt to the government.  As the first World War starts up, the bill becomes due.  Someone is a traitor in the government and sending classified information to the enemy.  The government wants Rief to find this person.  As someone with no prior attachment to the government, he will not be suspected of spying.  Thus begins his next life.  Attached to the military as are most young men, he begins a life of intrigue and subterfuge.  Can Rief find the traitor?

This is an interesting novel.  The reader is quickly drawn in and cares about what happens to Lysander.  There are betrayals and intrigues everywhere he looks and he is thrown back on his own ingenuity in order to find those who can be trusted and those who would do anything to keep their secrets buried.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.