It felt like a very rare project and a very rare story that needed telling. The novel is actually quite slim — I pretty much read it in a day, which never happens with me, because I’m a slow reader.

Johnny Flynn’s career has taken him from Regency England (“Emma,” “Vanity Fair”) to WWII (“Operation Mincemeat”) to contempo Glasgow (“Lovesick”) to mid-century Italy (“Ripley”) to 1971 David Bowie ...