Brennender Mond

Gabriel Dax #1

by William Boyd, Ulrike Thiesmeyer (translator)

Gabriel Dax' Nächte sind kurz. Seit seiner Kindheit leidet er unter Albträ Erinnerungen an jene verhängnisvolle Nacht, in der seine Mutter und sein Elternhaus einem verheerenden Brand zum Opfer fielen. Seiner Schlaflosigkeit zum Trotz ist der gefeierte Reiseschriftsteller aus Chelsea auf der ganzen Welt unterwegs – einer vom Kalten Krieg zerrissenen Welt. In Zentralafrika bietet sich ihm die exklusive Gelegenheit, den ersten Ministerpräsidenten des erst seit Kurzem unabhängigen Kongo zu interviewen. Dax wittert eine große Story, doch dann verschwindet Patrice Lumumba kurz nach ihrem Gespräch spurlos. Für die britische Presse ist der afrikanische Politiker damit auf einen Schlag Schnee von gestern, stattdessen aber haben plötzlich diverse Geheimdienste Interesse an Dax' Aufzeichnungen, allen voran die mysteriöse Agentin Faith Green, deren Charme Dax bald zum Verhängnis wird. Er Lumumba hat in dem Gespräch mehr offenbart, als so manchem lieb ist.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Espionage, Thriller, Mystery, Historical, Literary Fiction

379 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 5, 2024

About the author

Note: William^^Boyd

Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.

At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland and then Nice University (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow University (MA Hons in English and Philosophy), where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian. He then moved to Jesus College, Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley. For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic, then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda's College (1980-83). It was while he was here that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), was published.

Boyd spent eight years in academia, during which time his first film, Good and Bad at Games, was made. When he was offered a college lecturership, which would mean spending more time teaching, he was forced to choose between teaching and writing.

Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year, and is also an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has been presented with honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of St. Andrews, Stirling and Glasgow. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.

Boyd has been with his wife Susan since they met as students at Glasgow University and all his books are dedicated to her. His wife is editor-at-large of Harper's Bazaar magazine, and they currently spend about thirty to forty days a year in the US. He and his wife have a house in Chelsea, West London but spend most of the year at their chateau in Bergerac in south west France, where Boyd produces award-winning wines.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plotwise this novel is one of the most intriguing books by William Boyd.
Childhood is a prologue to life… Gabriel is a child and the world is enigma…

‘Why isn’t there a full moon every night?’ he asked. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘Neither do I. There must be a reason. An astronomical reason, I suppose. We’ll look it up in the encyclopaedia tomorrow.’

Thus the tale of Gabriel’s Moon begins…
Now in 1960 he is a full-grown man and a travel writer… Hot times… Hot spots… Congo… Interview with Patrice Lumumba… On returning to London he is offered a strange job – to go to Spain and to buy there a picture…

‘He’ll be extremely glad to sell you a drawing – but it must be a drawing: ink, pencil, pastel, not a painting,’ Faith said. ‘You can over-pay to keep him sweet. You’ll have a budget of two thousand pounds but he’ll be happy with a thousand, I guarantee.’

Gabriel finds himself in the thick of things… He feels being used by the parties unknown… Everything turns more and more complicated…

‘All your conspiracy theories are ridiculous,’ she said. ‘Fantasies. Don’t ignore the obvious explanations for events, things, situations. That’s why they’re obvious.’
‘Of course, you would say that. I’d expect you to say that. I’m just a useful idiot.’

Mysteries of the past… Secrets of the present… They exchange places… They intermingle…

‘You’ll get your usual wages. I’ll bring this back tomorrow,’ she said, holding up the small drawing, ‘And tell you what’s going to happen.’
‘All right,’ Gabriel said, a little sulkily. ‘I am your subject-slave.’
‘No, you’re not,’ she said. ‘You’re my spy. Remember?’

The undercover activity is like a subterranean stream – it’s invisible but it incessantly continues its eroding exertion.

[Andrew Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always enjoyed the way that Boyd takes historical events and builds a fictional story around them. In Sweet Caress, The New Confessions and Any Human Heart, he focuses on the life of an individual who lived through and often personally experienced many of the great events of the 20th century. In this novel, he introduces us to Gabriel Dax, a travel writer and journalist who happens to be in Léopoldville, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 1960. He’s invited to interview the country’s first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, courtesy of an old university chum who is a member of his cabinet. It’s a major coup, and he jumps at the opportunity. The interview is taped by Dax, using an old reel-to-reel device, and shortly after the interview, he returns home with the tapes.

The interview is to become something of significance some months later as Lumumba is first forced out of office and then a little later assassinated. He’d alluded to his fears of such an outcome during his interview. Might the tapes include information of some consequence? Dax is perturbed by the news but at this point he’s more preoccupied by minor troubles caused by a girlfriend who’s keen to move in and spoil his bachelor lifestyle and an idea he’s come up with for his next travel book. He’s a pretty laid-back fellow who drinks too much and sleeps little, but he enjoys his freedom; he's not keen to be tied down with a live-in partner on the scene.

Gabriel's sleeping issues stem from constant nightmares of raging fires. He’d escaped a house fire at an early age, a tragedy that claimed the life of his mother. In fact, he’s been persuaded to seek the help of a psychoanalyst who has suggested that he gather as many facts as he can surrounding the fire as this might lead to an unlocking of his memory block of the incident and in turn resolve his insomnia. To further complicate his life, he’s also been persuaded by an attractive older woman, Faith Green, to fit in a brief trip to Spain. His only task will be to purchase a drawing from an artist. He’ll be given precise instructions and rewarded handsomely. Enough, in fact, to finance some trips to places he’s chosen to feature in his next travel book. In this way he’s gradually drawn into the world of cold war spy craft, by the mysteriously alluring Faith, a woman he’s to become somewhat obsessed with.

The author does a great job of describing the places featured in this story, both at home in London and abroad during Gabriel’s various trips. I really felt that I was there with him, experiencing the sights and smells, and utterly aware of the emotions his adventures were invoking in him. This is a real skill that Boyd demonstrates time and again in his writing. Also, although there are plenty of strands to this tale, they are handled with skill to the extent that I never felt that I was lost in a puzzle that I simply couldn’t comprehend or resolve. I didn’t know how they fit together yet, but I always had a clear view of all the pieces.

It’s a somewhat lighter piece than some of Boyd’s earlier novels, but none the worse for that. Dax is an interesting and beguiling character, and I enjoyed my time with him. The story is also wrapped up well with a surprise or two along the way. But Boyd has consciously left a few loose ends, which leave the promise that we’ll no doubt meet up with Gabriel again. I, for one, will certainly be looking forward to that.

[Christy fictional_traits · Rating 4 out of 5]

'He was like a man in an ever-widening, ever-vermiculated labyrinth, he decided, but one with no exit'.

Gabriel Dax, 30 something-year-old travel writer, based in London, tragically orphaned at 6 years old, lives a pretty vanilla life, when his latest article takes him to the Congo. It's 1960 and Patrice Lumumba is the newly elected prime minister, and although Dax isn't a political journalist he's been asked to tape an interview with Lumumba about Congo's newly found independence. Soon after, in fact, starting on the plane trip home, a series of odd events begin to unfold, 'How had this happened to him? How had his happy, unremarkable existence taken this swerve'? Dax becomes caught up within a web of espionage, but just like the elusive mouse, evading capture in his flat, Dax quickly sharpens his wits in this world of double-crossing, lies, and illusion, 'He wasn't going to be their useful idiot anymore'.

This was my first Boyd book, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Dax, the reluctant, whisky-loving spy and unwitting pawn. Full of Cold War fears and 60s flair, this story will keep many types of story lovers entertained.

'Writing stabilized thoughts; it allowed you to see connections that thoughts alone didn't'.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This will sound extremely snarky, but if you ignore how horny the main character is all the time, Gabriel’s Moon is almost like a children’s book about Cold War spies. “Spy Kids 2 - Coup in the Congo” or something. Le Carré this is not.

Travel writer Gabriel gets the chance to interview Congolese prime minister Lumumba in 1960. Lumumba tells him the Americans, Brits, and Belgians want him dead and then gets overthrown and executed by the intelligence services of those three countries shortly after. Gabriel remains blissfully naive about what it might mean for him that he knows this and promptly gets roped into doing a “favour” for the MI6, which turns into becoming something of a MI6 errand boy. Cold War stuff ensues. There’s also some backstory about the house fire that killed Gabriel’s mother when he was a small boy and Gabriel going to a charlatan “psychoanalyst” whose session transcription we also get for whatever reason - they’re the most boring and on the nose psychoanalysis sessions you can imagine and contribute nothing to the plot, but considering we learn his therapist was never academically trained and just thinks she’s naturally good at being a psychoanalyst, maybe that tracks.

The book started off pretty well, but the longer it went on, the less believable it became. It just doesn’t seem very well researched and it doesn’t feel like we’re authentically in the early 60s at all - which is extra weird because the author was already alive back then!
It’s little things like a woman randomly wearing jeans (in 1960?? And the main character doesn’t think that’s noteworthy?) or talk of a “999 call” being placed in 1936 or Gabriel asking a non-smoker if it’s okay that he smokes (I’m pretty sure smokers wouldn’t even have thought twice until the 90s).
And then there’s the Cold War spy stuff. Maybe Le Carré movies have given me a wrong sense of things, but the lack of secrecy on display by everyone is just soooo weird. Gabriel’s MI6 handler literally tells him, “oh yeah I’m with the MI6, we’re uncovering double agents. We’ll pay you to go to Spain to do secret service stuff. Oh and that guy’s with the CIA. Also, we got Lumumba assassinated”. Gabriel then goes and tells his uncle, “I’m going to Spain as a MI6 asset!”
Excuse me?!
Everyone is constantly blabbing to this super easily manipulable civilian who cannot keep a secret about what exactly is going on on the secret service front. I mean, maybe they were that incompetent, what do I know. Bay of Pigs says hi, I guess. But, like… really?

The main character, Gabriel, was sadly not convincing at all (bonus lol at the big bad CIA guy telling this absolute idiot “you’re too clever for your own good, has anyone ever told you that” - no one has ever told him that mate, because he’s an idiot!). It felt a bit like self-insert wish fulfilment about an unremarkable guy getting thrown into the thick of it during the Cold War and becoming A Person Of Consequence.
His female handler, who’s supposed to be this alluring mysterious femme fatale, was also wholly unconvincing and don’t even get me started on his weird sexual obsession with her. Ick!!

I’ll give it 3* because it’s a very quick read and isn’t excessively long, so even when I literally got to a point where I was just laughing at the plot two-thirds in, I kept reading simply because I knew I was only a few dozen pages away from the resolution. I was somewhat entertained but very incredulous throughout, let’s put it this way.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gabriel Dax (a name that could surely have come out of a James Bond novel) is a drifter who makes his living as a travel writer. It’s an occupation that suits his unwillingness to get tied down and it’s brought him moderate success, enough at least to keep him in Scotch. He’s also been able to combine it with doing small clandestine errands for his elder brother, Sefton, who does something connected with the security services, although Gabriel doesn’t know quite what.

There are three women in Gabriel’s life. The first is his girlfriend, Lorraine, whom he finds sexually exciting but is less keen for their relationship to become a long-term commitment than she is.

The second woman is his therapist, Dr Katrina Haas, whom he consults because of his insomnia and the nightmares about the fire that killed his mother when he was six years old. His memories of that night differ from the official verdict about the cause of the fire – a moon-shaped nightlight in his bedroom (the ‘Gabriel’s moon’ of the book’s title.) Dr Haas convinces him the key to curing his insomnia is to discover the truth of what happened that night which enables the author to introduce a secondary storyline.

The third and, as it turns out, the most influential woman in his life is the mysterious Faith Green who draws Gabriel deeper and deeper into a web of intrigue. She knows just how to play him, starting from their very first encounter. ‘Was it that she understood him better than he understood himself? Maybe.’ Gabriel finds her alluring but it’s only very much later he realises how deep he’s become immersed in a dangerous conspiracy through his attraction to her. ‘Perhaps that was how she managed to make him do her bidding, keeping him wandering in the special labyrinth she’d constructed, baffling and tormenting – and where there were no exits’. The author creates a brilliantly intriguing relationship between Gabriel and Faith. At one point, he describes her as ‘the sorceress, the puppet-mistress of his life’. Later she’s both ‘his tormentor and his solace’.

Gabriel may consider himself a good liar – the essential gift of a good spy – but it turns out he’s an amateur compared with those around him, even people he believed he could trust. And situations in which he considers himself safe are often fraught with hidden dangers.

For lovers of espionage thrillers there’s plenty of spycraft: counter-surveillence techniques, coded messages, safe houses and clandestine meetings. You really get a sense of the Cold War era, a time of global tension epitomised by the Cuban missile crisis. And the various locations to which Gabriel travels, such as pre-unification Germany, are skilfully evoked. I also loved the author gives us an opaque ending and the neat little conceit at the end.

Gabriel’s Moon is an absorbing and assured spy thriller, highly recommended if you’re a fan of the novels of John le Carre.

[Timothy J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Limp

I have really liked some of William Boyd’s books and so I was easily duped by many gushing reviews into buying this book. By the time I realised my folly it was too late to get a refund. What a waste of $16. The writing style is silly and superficial and the characters are unbelievable. The plot is just ridiculous.

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this latest Boyd much more than The Romantic. It felt, to me, more like earlier works which I preferred.

The story centres around Gabriel Dax, a travel writer who, whilst in the Congo, is asked to interview the new Prime Minister and architect of independence, Patrice Lumumba. On his return to England however he finds himself becoming embroiled in the work of a shadowy organisation through contact with the beautiful and mysterious Faith Green. Having done various "errands" previously for his brother Faith persuades Gabriel to do several jobs which leads him into increasingly dangerous situations.

Boyd also provides us with an entertainjng sub-plot dealing with Gabriel's family background and the loss of his mother at the age of 6 for which he has always blamed himself.

Both stories are equally interesting and the writing is excellent. It's a truly engaging book and I looked forward to reading it. I certainly didn't want to rush through it and miss anything. Gabriel is an unlikely hero and the other characters are wonderfully shady.

For me this was a return to the Boyd of Ice Cream Wars and a Good Man in Africa. Highly recommended.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Penguin for the advance review copy.

[Iain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boyd rarely disappoints, whichever genre he chooses to write in. This one is a spy novel, very much in the style of a le Carre, and introduces us to Gabriel Dax, an unwitting and ill-equipped writer thrust into a world of intrigue. A clever twisting plot keeps things ticking along and the early 60s setting brings back the 'golden age' of Cold War spy games. Works perfectly as a standalone novel, but there is scope for further adventures, which would be most welcome.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked William Boyd's "Gabriel's Moon" but it was a very odd book. It was like going to a very good restaurant and having a terrific meal but leaving still hungry because the portions were so skimpy. Gabriel Dax is a writer of travel books who is on assignment in the Congo. Not the Belgian Congo because it had already won its independence from Belgium in 1960. While there he is invited by a fellow writer, coincidentally also in the Congo, to interview the new Marxist president, Patrice Lumumba. As most writers do Dax recorded his interview. Lumumba authorizes the recording because he fears that he will be assassinated shortly by foreign agents because he is accepting aid from Moscow and being drawn into the Communist sphere of influence. Foreign agents from where? Mainly the US and England because they fear that they will lose out on access to the uranium that the Congo can provide. Dax writes up a free lance article about Lumumba but before he can sell it Lumumba is assassinated and the article is unmarketable. Yesterday's news.

But strangely Dax keeps running into people carrying copies of his books. One such stranger offers him money to take trips to Spain and other locations to perform innocuous tasks. It slowly dawns on him that he is walking a fine line between travel and spying. But dang, the money is so good. And if he is spying what is his mission? And the book is pretty good but at this point it's starting to dawn on me that not everything is going to be wrapped up by book's end. And there are too many chance meetings. And at the core of the chance meetings are the Lumumba tapes.

Plus there are a couple of subplots that, as it turns out, add nothing to the story and go nowhere. For example, Gabriel was orphaned at the age of 6 when his house burned down and killed his widowed mother. As a result he has always been a bad sleeper with nightmares of burning houses. He spends a good deal of time in therapy and looking into the details of the house fire. What does this have to do with the story? Is it to show the contrast between his zeal to discover the reason for his life altering loss as a child and his ambivalence toward his confusing current spy activities?

William Boyd is an entertaining writer in the mold of Graham Greene. Some of his books are better than others and I put "Gabriel's Moon" in the middle of the pack. But with all their flaws his books are always worth reading. I just wasn't totally moonstruck with this one.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intriguing and immersive read! I never quite knew what would happen next as Gabriel Dax becomes an accidental spy. Excellent narration provided by George Blagden.

Favorite quotes:

“How could he be sure that what he was remembering was anything like the reality of what happened? Memory is a dog that wants to please its master.”

Describing a dark pub in Dublin – “A close-knit hugger mugger place with blackened paneling walls and a stained sagging creamy ceiling almost like sitting in a giant pint of Guiness.”

About Dubliners with their “wildly contradictory advice” on tourist attractions - “Was there such a thing as a monosyllabic taciturn Dubliner he wondered.”

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gabriel Dax is a successful travel writer, chain smoker, borderline alcoholic and suffers from insomnia. After a trip to Leopardville in the Congo in 1962 he is approached by MI6. During his visit to the Congo he interviewed the President who was later killed.

Gabriel agrees to go to Franco’s Spain to pick up a drawing and is drawn into a game of cat and mouse where he is the mouse. The use of the mouse and his unsuccessful attempts to trap it in his flat is a good metaphor.

The story and his obsession with Faith his handler gets him more and more into espionage. I enjoyed the descriptions of 1960s London and the authors descriptions are evocative. Perhaps I am being critical as I just finished Dead Lions by Mick Herron which was excellent and made sense.

[Paul Dembina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes it's nice to take a break from more "experimental" and challenging works to just enjoy a well-written straightforward thriller.

Boyd is good at this sort of stuff.

[Luis Polanco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terrible. Reads like a high schooler’s attempt at James Bond. The main character is equal parts creep and idiot. The “reveal” at the end was unsatisfying. So much unnecessary description of women’s clothing. Didn’t like this book at all.
Waste of time.

[Bruce Katz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly enjoyable bit of Cold War espionage. "Gabriel's Moon" opens dramatically in the 30s with a deadly house fire, but most of the action takes place in the early ‘60s. Gabriel Dax is a travel writer of middling talent. He leads a quiet, rather aimless, and uncomplicated life. He's involved in a relationship with a waitress from the local Wimpy but there's no emotional aspect to it.

One day, while on a trip to Africa to research a writing project, Gabriel encounters an old university friend who asks him if he’d be interested in interviewing the new Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba. Dax hesitates at first, saying that he’s neither a political reporter nor an expert on Africa. Finally he agrees to the sit-down, thinking it might at least be good for an article. The interview done, Dax unhurriedly makes his way back to his London flat only to learn that Lumumba has been assassinated. He is shocked, of course, but only in a distant way. But strange things start happening, both before and after his return — phone calls where no voice answers when he picks up the receiver, a chance encounter with a woman on a plane who happens to be reading one of his books, unexpected first class tickets. For some reason he can't fathom, people (who they are he doesn’t know) are very, even desperately, eager to get their hands on the notes and tape recording of the Lumumba interview. And suddenly Dax finds himself in the spy business.

“Gabriel’s Moon” has a throwback feel to it, an air of an earlier, more innocent time. In true spy novel fashion, the plot takes Gabriel to several different countries and is twisty enough to keep the reader guessing. But the stakes aren’t as world-threatening as we’ve become used to in our spy fiction. Dax is nowhere anywhere at all on the James Bond/Jason Bourne spectrum, though Boyd quietly parodies elements of Bond’s canon. There’s more than a little irony here but it doesn’t have the sharp edges that seem so necessary in recent spy novels. It isn't as dense and claustrophobic (in a good way!) as a le Carre book. It’s just a story of a rather ordinary — even feckless — man living a quiet life of travel, writing, endless cigarettes, commitment-free sex, and therapy sessions (even though he doesn't believe in therapy) where he talks about the fire that killed his mother. Almost on a whim — and because his older brother works in the Foreign Office, so there's a hint of sibling rivalry — he agrees to do some “small” jobs for MI6; it sounds like fun and pays well. He becomes strongly attracted to his “handler” who keeps contacting him about another little trip. Finally, as might well be expected, Gabriel finds himself caught up in plots and counterplots, double-crosses, threats, a corpse, and finally mounting peril behind the Iron Curtain.

It’s not a “deep” book, nor does it pretend to be. It’s entertaining, it doesn’t strain credulity, it captures some of the geopolitics of the 60s Cold War, and it even raises real ethical issues. Boyd leaves the door ajar just a bit at the end for a sequel.

My thanks to Atlantic Monthly and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.

[Sophie Breese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yay. New book by William Boyd!

Awesome to read another Boyd novel. It’s been a while. Really really good. Listened in 2 days. Already waiting for the next one.

I love that he doesn’t over explain things and trusts the reader to work things out for themselves.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because it is categorized as a “spy” novel, I felt this might be outside my usual reading range – but it was a very well done story, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. With the main character, Gabriel Dax, Boyd has created an unwilling spy in a troubled 30 year old man who is otherwise a travel writer. However, I felt that this was much more than just a cold war spy novel. Gabriel is a fully drawn human, and the reader experiences his lingering issues from childhood trauma, his amorous relationships, his life as a travel writer, his relationship with his brother as well as his life as a sometimes spy. The other characters were wonderful, and the plot kept me guessing. The writing was nice. This was a well done, “fun ride” of a novel.

[giada · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the first time I read from this author, and after all the praise I’d heard about his previous books and this one in particular it’s sad to admit that I really didn’t see the appeal.

The execution of the plot hinges on a very flimsy house of cards, where Gabriel, a renowned travel writer ends up becoming an accidental “runner” for MI6.

It didn’t make sense to me that trained spies kept feeding him information while he was doing his little jobs, as didn’t make sense the way his psychiatrist wants him to deal with his hangups (that can only be explained by the fact the book is set in the 60’s…). Not only that, the great mystery surrounding the prologue, which all of his troubles seem to stem from, gets resolved in a roundabout way and swept under the carpet with no real or satisfying resolution.

A thing that bothered me immensely was the way Gabriel kept being praised for his intelligence and acumen by all the people he met, even though he kept making rookie mistakes (fortunately for him nothing ever goes wrong, which was the author's way to make him look competent). I had a hard time reading, as I hated him as a character but also as a person.

The book’s ending remains slightly open, making it feel like the prelude to a series (a naïve James Bond) rather than a stand-alone, but that might have been an editorial choice in case the book was a success.

I’m really sad I didn’t like it, I was really excited to read it.

Access to the ARC acquired thanks to NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Fred Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

We begin with a six-year old Gabriel, going to sleep beside his moon-shaped nightlight in 1936. The house catches fire and burns down, leaving Gabriel an orphan and a guilt-ridden insomniac for much of his life. The story then jumps ahead to 1961. Gabriel is now a travel writer and journalist. Through the offices of an old college classmate, he ends up interviewing Patrice Lumumba shortly before his assassination. As a result, Gabriel gets mixed up with MI6 and the CIA. He is recruited as a minor spy, a courier, by Faith Greene, an MI6 agent. He goes on several missions, becomes obsessed with Faith, and is tangentially involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis. In a secondary story line, he undergoes analysis and investigates the fire, in an effort to deal with his past and his insomnia. We slowly learn more of his backstory and come to understand his behavior much more clearly. It is a good story, which incorporates a bit of actual history, and Gabriel and Faith are both intriguing characters. I am looking forward to the sequel.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel begins in 1960 with journalist / author Gabriel Dax flying back to England after picking up a scoop, by interviewing the Congolese Prime Minister when a series of strange coincidences begins; a woman on the plane is reading one of his books, his London apartment has been entered, but left in 'careful disarray', and he sees the woman from the plance on the street. When he approaches her, she reveals that she is from MI6 and has a mission that may interest him.
Its a cracking beginning to another great Boyd spy novel.

I think when reading a spy novel the reader is more prepared to suspend disbelief to an extent they wouldn't in other novels. These were the days of double agents, not long after Guy Burgess and the Cambridge Five, and it is only years after, if at all, that the public get to know what actually went on.
There is often some aspect of spying in a Boyd novel, its one of his things, along with the locations of Central Africa and the Scottish Borders, which he manages to include here also.

Just personally, as rollicking a good tale as this is, I prefer Boyd when he writes those stories of entire lives, as in Any Human Heart, The New Confessions and Sweet Caress, but he is an exceptional storyteller, and this was thoroughly entertaining.

[Lyn Elliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable easy read, but so much stuff going on it left me uncertain why Boyd had put such odd story lines together.

[Skip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gabriel Dax is a London-based travel writer. While visiting the 1960s Congo, a friend asks him to interview the new Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, with the interview tape recorded at Lumumba's request. As people start dying, a number of parties are interested in burying the recording in which Lumumba says he fears assassination and names possible threats. Gabriel's older brother works for the Foreign Service, doing an occasional favor. Then, he is asked by a female MI-6 agent to do similar favors for money, including buying art from an Iberian artist and delivering it. Separately, Gabriel survived a house fire as a child, for which his candle nightlight is blamed. His mother was killed in the fire and Gabriel's sleep has plagued with nightmares. He starts seeing a psychoanalyst to help him sleep better through open dialogue, whereby Gabriel admits an obsession with the agent. Strange happenings, but oddly satisfying.

[Zibbi · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book about an insomniac travel writer tangled up in espionage, which sounds like it should be thrilling, mysterious, and full of shadowy intrigue. Instead, it feels rather like a long, meandering conversation with someone who keeps forgetting where they were going with their story and then, just as you’re about to give up, suddenly remembers, only for it to not be nearly as interesting as you’d hoped.

Now, to be fair, our protagonist gets a bit of depth. He has layers, technically structured, but not necessarily holding up well under scrutiny. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the secondary characters, many of whom seem to exist purely for the purpose of existing. Their deaths and presence were not particularly moving.

The title, which, much like certain plot points, seems to be here out of obligation rather than necessity. What exactly does Gabriel’s Moon mean in the grand scheme of things? The main character’s childhood trauma, supposedly responsible for his sleeplessness, should, one might assume, tie into the main plot in some grand and meaningful way. It does not. Instead, it sits politely in the background, adding nothing of value, like an abandoned side quest that everyone forgot to complete.

The pacing was also glacial. I struggled to hold my attention, and while there were mysteries to unravel, they were not of the particularly gripping variety. More “Oh, I suppose that’s happening” rather than “I must keep reading or I shall perish.” The big reveals landed with all the impact of a slightly damp newspaper, and just as things seemed to be building toward something, we arrived at the ending, which can best be described as: Well. That happened. What now?

And that, really, is the trouble. Gabriel’s Moon doesn’t leave much behind. Not a lingering thought, not a sharp impression. Just a vague sense that you once read a book and will, in time, probably forget about it entirely.

Content Warning: Mentions of Suicide, Death

[Libbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gabriel Dax is a journalist and author who finds himself in the middle of an international incident and pursued by MI6 and CIA when he interviews the Prime Minister of the Congo Patrice Lumumba shortly before his execution.

With a lot of novels you have to suspend an element of disbelief but this book is just so historically inaccurate to the point of absurdity. Gabriel is an unlikeable main character who if you ignore the fact that he has the horn for 80% of the book he's just boring, I can't get behind him as a lead

The plot was fine, but there were a number of subplots that just went nowhere. A lot of characters made really dumb decisions that were out of character as well and I was just so frustrated for most of my read.

Read and judged for Booktube Prize Octofinals

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfectly constructed and written spy novel, with a great sense of place (England and Spain, mostly) and time (the early 60s). Satisfying as both an espionage novel (intricately plotted but managing to color within the lines) and a psychological novel. I think I've been sleeping on William Boyd, and intend to rectify that forthwith. Can't wait for the next Dax novel (out this fall in the US).

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF at 50%

When it’s a chore to listen to the audiobook, you gotta say life’s too short and pick up something else.

[Phillip Marsh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting beginning, but ultimately laughably simplistic and naive with an unsatisfying end.

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the main character of ‘Gabriel’s Moon’ by William Boyd is a bit unbelievable, but it is an interesting enough spy story until it went off the rails for me about halfway through. I couldn’t really believe in a lot of the sexual hookups. However, I was curious enough to finish the book, which is the first in the Gabriel Dax series. I do intend to go on to book two. I want to know what happens, despite the odd spying chaos of Gabriel Dax’s life.

I have copied the book blurb:

”From the internationally bestselling author beloved by readers everywhere, William Boyd offers his most exhilarating novel yet, following a reluctant spy drawn into the shadows of espionage and obsession

Gabriel Dax is a young man haunted by the memories of a fire that took his mother’s life. 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 the changing landscapes of Europe in the grip of the Cold War. When he is offered the chance to interview Patrice Lumumba, newly elected president of the People’s Republic of the Congo, he finds himself drawn into a web of duplicities and betrayals.

Falling under the spell of Faith Green, an enigmatic and ruthlessly efficient MI6 handler, he becomes “her spy,” unable to resist her demands. But amid the peril, paranoia, and passion consuming Gabriel’s new covert life, there will also be revelations closer to home that may change his own story, and the fates of those around him.

Traveling from the vibrant streets of sixties London to the sun-soaked cobbles of Cadiz and the frosty squares of Warsaw, Gabriel’s Moon is a remarkable accomplishment from one of our greatest storytellers.”

Gabriel seems to be in the same mess as was the character William Hurt plays in the Kathleen Turner/William Hurt ‘Body Heat’ movie. Faith Green appears to be stitching up Gabriel to be a cat’s paw in setting up meetings for him with people who might be spies, or not. He has no idea of the purpose behind these meetings, or the stuff she has him pass on or collect. He is not a professional spy at all. He is a travel writer, but his brother Sefton is some sort of spy. Sefton recommended Gabriel to Faith because Gabriel travels a lot for his books. She thinks his traveling is a perfect cover for some clandestine dropping off or picking up of objects in different cities around the world. He does what she asks because he has become caught up in feelings of uncontrollable lust for Faith when he first meets her, even when he suspects her of setting him up to take a fall for a crime or setting him up to get killed.

I loved the movie ‘Body Heat’, but while this book has much the same kind of fatal attraction going on between Faith and Gabriel, I didn’t believe in it like I did in the passion of Hurt’s character in ‘Body Heat’. Gabriel permits Faith to throw him under the bus all the while knowing or suspecting she is throwing him under the bus. Plus Gabriel knowingly becomes a traitor to his country because he likes a spy he meets only a couple of times. Why on earth would that happen? Nor can I understand his being ok having talk therapy with a woman he knows is lying about being a doctor of psychiatry when is telling her about his part time job as a spy sometimes while really trying to find out why he is having mental problems. I am mystified by all of Gabriel’s choices in this novel. I am also mystified by the spy agency, MI6, not checking out the fact of Gabriel’s needing mental health care.

Oh well. I am curious where this peculiar series is going, so I will probably read at least one more book in the series. It is an intriguing spy mystery to me because of its lack of coherency. Does that lack of sane behaviors from all of the characters have a purpose, or is it authorial carelessness because he is writing a quickie James Bond derivative?

Trailer for the movie ‘Body Heat’ on Youtube.

https://youtu.be/Wz-Pf9_SKeI?si=UNW3a...

[Ryan Davison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gabriel Dax, famed 1960’s English travel writer, interviews Patrice Lumumba, the Prime Minister of Congo. He doesn’t think much of it, returns home to write his piece and the Congolese leader is assassinated. Then, like the Talking Heads album, Gabriel's world stops making sense.

Before the first chapter set in the Congo, Gabriel’s Moon treats us to a beautifully written prologue about childhood tragedy and a mysterious house fire. It sets the framework for the entire novel, leaving Dax combing for the truths in his past and in the espionage situations of present. Gabriel’s older brother works for the foreign service and they regularly meet to discuss events - a fun nod to Sir Arthur's OG detective.

Our plot traverses the globe and serves up impressively well thought out twists. Because the protagonist falls into spying unintentionally for a bit the reader might feel off balance. As we fall into rhythm with the author’s tone, the story grow increasingly entertaining.

William Boyd’s talent as a novelist, screenwriter and director offers fresh perspective on a genre lacking strong books these days. This satisfying read ends with a tease aimed at drawing us into the next entry in the series and succeeds.

Recommended to fans of literary spycraft in the spirit of John le Carre or Graham Greene. If you enjoy, I'd also recommend Karla's Choice by Nick Harkaway.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

When William Boyd comes out with a new book, I’m all in. Gabriel’s Moon is no exception. In fact, once I started it, I could barely put it down.

While labeled a “spy book,” this is true only in the narrowest sense. Gabriel Dax is a complex character with personal issues. At just six years old, his mother—his only parent—died in a house fire that inspectors believed was accidentally started by Gabriel. He suffers from severe insomnia and finds it hard to establish true intimacy. He has a cordial but distant relationship with his older brother, whom he suspects might be part of the intelligence community. As a result, sees a psychoanalyst to sort things out. (Incidentally, Boyd shines when he writes about the power of therapy. My favorite book of his, Waiting for Sunrise, similarly uses a therapist to spark insights).

Gabriel is a successful travel writer, and the entire plot stems from an interview with Patrice Lumumba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s first prime minister. A shining star and an advocate for independence from Belgium, Lumumba lasts only weeks before he is murdered. Gabriel has the interview tapes; for some reason, it seems others want them badly.

The twists and turns come fast and furiously. As Gabriel is drawn deeper into Cold War double-crossing of the 1960s, he becomes more and more drawn to a world that intrigues and at the same time, repels him. Is he a useful idiot or an integral part of the intelligence chain? Are the people in his life trustworthy or pernicious? Can old memories – and new ones in the making – be trusted? Is anything what it seems?

Gabriel’s Moon is not a traditional thriller; rather, it’s thrilling and thoroughly involving. Reportedly the first of a series, Gabriel Dax is a character I can’t wait to meet again.

[Bruce Beckham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I devoured the first five William Boyd novels and somehow lost touch; yet I found them variously remarkably authentic and laugh-out-loud funny, and always compelling. As our street book group’s latest choice, therefore, I was pleased to reconnect … until I began reading.

It’s hard to believe this 1960s spy story was written by the same author as A Good Man in Africa or An Ice Cream War. The narrative is riddled with non-sequiturs, major and minor, characters waver in their consistency, and there are plot holes that Agatha Christie would be proud of, as implausible means of sneaking past awkward explanations.

The words on each page read pretty well, so as a group we tried to analyse what was missing from the big picture. The consensus was that, while as a reader you accept you are rooting for the protagonist, this story lacks a clear reason as to WHY you should do so. To what end are you hanging onto Gabriel’s coattails?

Is it the resolution of his childhood trauma, of the book’s title? Or that he will become a competent secret agent? Or that he will pull the beguiling older woman who gives him orders?

We didn’t know.

One member found Gabriel’s continual anticipation of sex with successive females a little disconcerting, and there were one or two toe-curling descriptions.

Another remarked, did we really need to know each time he urinated?

Perhaps enough said.