Lion Eyes: A Novel [Paperback]

Claire Berlinski (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (February 6, 2007)
• ASIN: B0024UC32M
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Claire Berlinski is a freelance investigative journalist, travel writer, biographer, and novelist who lives in Istanbul. She is the author of Menace in Europe: Why the Continent's Crisis is America's, Too, and There is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters, which Newt Gingrich said "every American should read" and Theodore Darymple described as "about as powerful a defense of Thatcher's record as is likely ever to be written."

Her journalism has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, First Post, theOxford International Review, The American, Asia Times, the Globe and Mail, the New York Sun, the Weekly Standard, National Review, Policy Review, Penthouse, Radio Free Europe, World Affairs Journal, Azure, Traveler's Tales, Travel & Leisure, and Arabies Trends. She is also the author of two spy novels and a frequent guest on local and international radio talk shows.

Since receiving a degree in Modern History and a doctorate in international relations from Oxford University, she has lived and worked in Britain, Thailand, Laos, France, and Turkey.

She devotes her spare time to rescuing stray animals, studying the martial arts, and sharing hand-to-hand combat tips on the Internet.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book I've read in a long, long time., May 28, 2007

By 

Kay (Lubbock, TX) - See all my reviews

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

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!

2 of 2 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
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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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Ain't no way to hide...", April 21, 2007

By 

Lara Tupper - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lion Eyes: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is a witty and imaginative story told in sharp, self-assured prose. Lion Eyes is not just for Eagles fans-- it's for anyone who enjoys vivid descriptions of place (Istanbul, Paris) and pointed commentary about the lines between fact and fiction. I read this book greedily; I can't wait for more from Claire Berlinski.