Book
Waiting for Sunrise
Vienna, 1913. English actor Lysander Rief seeks treatment from psychiatrist Dr Bensimon and becomes involved with the artist Hettie Bull. The affair entangles him in accusation and scandal while the city’s culture of psychoanalysis, art and imperial confidence exists on the edge of a political order that is about to disappear. During his stay, Lysander also encounters Sigmund Freud.
With the outbreak of the First World War, Lysander returns to Britain and is drawn into intelligence work. A coded leak threatens military security, taking him between wartime London, France and neutral Switzerland as he tries to identify a traitor. The novel links the uncertainty of psychoanalysis with the uncertainties of espionage, where memory, performance and deception become practical matters of survival.
Historical people
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Other books by William Boyd
