Lion Eyes: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Narrated with verve and élan, Berlinski's sly second thriller flirts more with romance than danger. During the hot summer of 2003, a Paris-based American novelist named Claire Berlinksi gets into an online affair with a Persian archeologist who may be a spy. According to the preface, something similar happened to the author. Arsalan (aka "the Lion"), who lives in Isfahan, Iran, admires the real author's debut about a female CIA trainee, Loose Lips (2003), and is sure Claire has actual CIA ties. At Arsalan's suggestion, Claire swaps apartments with a colleague of his in Istanbul, Turkey. There Claire meets a cheerful if less than competent CIA agent, Sally, who asks her help in getting to Arsalan. Claire and the zany supporting cast make this tale of thwarted intimacy—as overseen by the gimlet eye of the World Wide Web (and CIA)—an entertaining example of what Claire calls the tantalizing "intersection between what you write and the truth." Keen social commentary on Paris and Istanbul adds to the fun. Berlinski is also the author of Menace in Europe: Why the Continent's Crisis Is America's, Too. (Jan.)
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From Booklist

Reality and fiction mesh gracefully in this inventive follow-up to Berlinski's first novel, Loose Lips (2003). A fictional Claire Berlinski is the heroine of this tale, living in Paris after the publication of Loose Lips. When she gets an e-mail from a man named Arsalan who wants to order her book, she impulsively sends him a copy. They begin to correspond, and Claire finds the more she learns about Arsalan, a Persian archaeologist dedicated to preserving ancient artifacts in the Middle East, the more she's drawn to him. On a whim, she swaps apartments for several months with one of Arsalan's colleagues and moves to the vibrant city of Istanbul. But when a new friend claims to be a CIA agent who has been following her correspondence with Arsalan and wants to get in touch with him, Claire realizes she might be in for some real-life intrigue. Colorful and filled with memorable characters, this adventure is well worth the journey. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (February 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400062950
• ISBN-13: 978-1400062959
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #426,244 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So The Lion has Loose Lips..., June 28, 2007

By	Ellece Bill (Vegas, Baby) - See all my reviews

... and in the end, our "fictional" Claire is all the wiser. I just finished reading Claire Berlinski's "Lion Eyes," and before I did anything else, I plopped down at my desk to come write a review of this incredible book!

I want to use a bunch of cliche statements one reads in book reviews and state that this book was phenomenal, a real page-turner (I read it in two days), and is a must-read for everyone this summer -- and I actually mean what I say with said cliches. It is filled with everything that a reader of contemporary fiction is looking for: it has humor (Imran in the bathroom almost caused cherry Kool-aid to snort out of my nose when I read that scene), romance (Claires, both of you... I fell for Arsalan too, and I'm as intelligent, well-educated, and professional as you two!), intrigue, espionage, fantasy, and reality. The plot twists in all the right places, and as gifted as I am with guessing outcomes of books (I saw the Tyler Durden/narrator thing coming a mile away in "Fight Club," mind you) "Lion Eyes" delighted me with unexpected blind allies and secret passageways the whole time, all the way to the end. Claire Berlinski's literary abilities shine forth with this book, and I genuinely hope that she has something else in the queue to be published soon.

Perhaps you, like me, will find yourself humming "Lying Eyes" by the Eagles (get it? hee) once you read this enchanting book. Trust me, a charismatic, brilliant man who loves poetry, animals, and his mother is hard for a girl to resist, even when he exists only behind typed black words on a book's white page, and you root for Claire implicitly as she tells the reader her tale of the allure of internet correspondence with a mysterious stranger. Every single element Claire Berlinski used worked flawlessly in this book, from her cast of lovable characters to the vivid imagery in which foreign and exotic places are described. The reader peers over Claire's shoulder as she emails Arsalan, Samantha, and Imran, and we follow right behind her as she explores Istanbul and Paris. I wanted this book to go on and on, but Claire was right to say what she said to The Lion in her final email to him. What did she say? Read the book!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Will keep you interested - and ending is unexpected, December 25, 2008

By	Paula Feldmeier (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Lion Eyes: A Novel (Paperback)

I didn't read this author's first book, Loose Lips, but will need to do so as I thought this book was pretty good. The author does a great job of moving back and forth between conversations and relationships with different people in the book who eventually reveal a common thread. Taking place in Paris and then Istanbul, this spy-like novel doesn't disappoint.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book I've read in a long, long time., May 29, 2007

By	Kay (Lubbock, TX) - See all my reviews

Claire Berlinski's LION EYES is an online dating story, a spy story, a travelogue (it's set in Paris and Istanbul), and a story about how wacky people and life can be. It's brilliant, witty, clever, and comedic with a nice sense of symmetry. Claire wrote an earlier novel, LOOSE LIPS, about a woman with a degree in English who decides to join the CIA because she doesn't want to teach; LOOSE LIPS is somewhat of an exposé of the CIA training practices with a love story thrown in. In LION EYES, the follow-up novel, Claire (who does actually live in Paris and Istanbul) receives a query from an Iranian archeologist about how he can get a copy of LOOSE LIPS, since Amazon doesn't deliver to Iran. Unfortunately, later when Claire's sending an e-mail to a friend about Claire's being dumped by her boyfriend, she inadvertently sends it to the wrong address--to the Iranian archeologist. From there, they develop a epistolary relationship all the while Claire is working on her next novel, corresponding with a friend also working on a book, and corresponding with another friend, a therapist. The archeologist turns out to be someone being monitored by the CIA, not for being a terrorist, but for being someone with valuable information on where Iranian nuclear sites are located. This is a lighthearted, delightful, charming, extremely well written book with many zany surprises. I couldn't put it down!