Lulu in Marrakech - Softcover

Johnson, Diane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452295599 ISBN 13: 9780452295599

Publisher: Plume Books, 2009

Synopsis

"Timely and provocatively incorrect."--Oprah.com (Mysteries Every Thinking Woman Should Read)

The two-time Pulitzer Prize and three-time National Book Award-nominated author of Le Divorce returns with a mesmerizing novel of double standards and double agents

Now, Diane Johnson brilliantly exposes the manners and morals of the cultural collision between Islam and the West. Lulu Sawyer arrives in Marrakech, Morocco, hoping to rekindle her romance with a worldly Englishman, Ian Drumm. It's the perfect cover for her assignment for the CIA: tracing the flow of money from well-heeled donors to radical Islamic groups. While spending her days poolside among Europeans in villas staffed by maids in abayas, and her nights at lively dinner parties, Lulu observes the fragile and tense coexistence of two cultures. But beneath the surface of this polite expatriate community lies a sinister world laced not only with double standards, but double agents.

Johnson weaves a dazzling tale in the great tradition of works about naïve Americans abroad, with a fascinating new assortment of characters as well as witty and timely observations on the political and sexual complexities between Islamic and Western culture.

About this title

Review:

"Timely and provocatively incorrect, Lulu in Marrakech is part page-turning thriller, part in-depth examination of gender inequality and the 'perennial eye infection of colonialism.'"--Oprah.com (Mysteries Every Thinking Woman Should Read)

"She has blended her interest in heavier issues with a lightness of touch... Johnson's novel is not only a gripping page-turner--I don't know when I last just plain enjoyed reading a novel as much as this one--but a serious examination of how a "good person" can get involved in some very dark things."--Martin Rubin, SFGATE

"As the bemused observer of a complicated, chatty multicultural social set--and her own complicated romantic yearnings--[Lulu]'s a cool, self-aware delight."--Entertainment Weekly

"Johnson breaks new ground by making her American expatriate a CIA spy in Morocco... As stimulating as Johnson's previous work."--Kirkus Reviews

About the Author:

Diane Johnson is the author of the bestselling novel Le Divorce, a National Book Award finalist, as well as many other novels, including Persian Nights, Health and Happiness, Lying Low, The Shadow Knows, and Burning. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Persian Nights, and she co-authored the screenplay to The Shining with Stanley Kubrick. She divides her time between San Francisco and Paris.

About this edition

• Publisher: Plume Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0452295599
• ISBN 13: 9780452295599
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320