By Roger Childs

William Boyd is English fiction’s master story teller. –The Independent

A great novelist

 I can humbly endorse this observation, having read twelve of his books. If you are not familiar with Boyd’s excellent writing, grab one when you are next in the library; you won’t be disappointed. His first novel was A Good Man for Africa and he has never looked back. This book won two prestigious literary awards and was made into a film.

Boyd tells wonderful stories, usually with historical settings, and makes it difficult for the reader to take a break! Waiting for Sunrise starts with the line It is a clear and dazzling summer’s day in Vienna. It sounds similar to Snoopy’s opening for the great canine novel: It was a dark and stormy night.

 However Boyd’s second sentence pulls you in: You are standing in a skewed pentangle of lemony sunshine at the sharp corner of Augustiner Strasse and Augustinerbastei, across from the opera house, indolently watching the world pass by you, waiting for someone or something to catch and hold your attention, to generate a tremor of interest.

A World War One setting

It’s 1913, and English actor Lysander Rief is in Vienna with a very personal problem, which he hopes a local psychologist will fix. His late father was a famous stage personality and his beautiful mother is Austrian. 

The story covers just three years and is set mainly in Vienna, London and Geneva. World War One is the backdrop for most of the novel and Lysander is involved with German internees in Wales; sees brief, violent action on the Western Front, and is then tied up with British intelligence and a constantly changing investigation to unmask a traitor.

There is a fascinating range of characters, who are as varied and interesting as their names. Some examples:

  • Lady Anna (Annaliese) Faulkner, Lysander’s glamorous and loving mother
  • Hamo Rief, his explorer uncle
  • Hettie Bull: a flaky, diminutive English sculptor and Lysander’s occasional lover
  • John Bensemon, a sympathetic English psychologist based in Vienna who solves the hero’s problem
  • Blanche Blondel: a fellow actor who is engaged to Lysander
  • Florence Duchesne, a mysterious French secret agent based in Geneva
  • Captain Christian Vandenbrook, a key figure in the British Directorate of War Movements.

Sigmund Freud also makes a brief guest appearance.

Stylistic variations

Boyd is a clever writer who varies his approach in Waiting for Sunrise: there is straight narration; at times Lysander tells the story in sections called Autobiographical Investigations; in other sections it is written like a conversation in a play, and there are even a few poems. The mix is very satisfying, and the unfolding plot of the novel has many twists and turns building to an exciting and unexpected climax. Very highly recommended

The Paraparaumu Library has a large collection of Boyd novels, including the brilliant Ordinary Thunderstorms.