Dutton
October 2008
On Sale: October 7, 2008
Featuring: Lulu Sawyer; Ian Drumm
320 pages ISBN: 0525950370 EAN: 9780525950370 Hardcover Add to Wish List
The two-time Pulitzer Prize– and three-time National Book
Award–nominated author of the bestseller Le Divorce
returns with a mesmerizing novel of double standards and
double agents.
Lulu Sawyer, the heroine of Diane
Johnson’s captivating new novel, arrives in Marrakech,
Morocco, hoping to rekindle her romance with a worldly
Englishman, Ian Drumm. It’s the perfect cover for her
assignment with the American 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 local maids in abayas, and her nights at
lively dinner parties, Lulu observes the fragile coexistence
of two cultures which, if not yet clashing, have begun to
show signs of fracture. Beneath the surface of this polite
expatriate community lies a more sinister world laced not
only with double standards, but with double agents.
As she navigates the complex interface of Islam and the
West, Lulu stumbles into unforeseen intrigues: A young
Muslim girl, Suma, is hiding from a brother intent on an
honor killing; and a beautiful Saudi woman, Gazi, who is
vying for Ian’s love, leaves her husband in a desperate bid
to escape her repressive society. The more Lulu immerses
herself in the workings of Marrakech, the more questions
emerge; and when bombs explode, the danger is
palpable.
Lulu’s mission ultimately has tragic
consequences, but along the way readers will fall in love
with this endearing young woman as she improvises her way
through the souk, her love life, and her profession. As in
her previous novels, Diane Johnson weaves a dazzling tale in
the great tradition of works about naive Americans abroad
and the laws of unintended consequence, with a new,
fascinating assortment of characters, as well as witty,
trenchant observations on the manners and morals of a
complicated moment in history.
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