Lulu in Marrakech, Diane Johnson
Lulu in Marrakech, Diane Johnson
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Lulu in Marrakech

Author: Diane Johnson

Narrator: Justine Eyre

Unabridged: 9 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/07/2008

Synopsis

“Like Jane Austen [Diane Johnston] steps out of the frame to anatomize her characters with sudden insight; like Virginia Woolf she creeps back in to record their inappropriate thoughts–and their consternation at having them.” –Newsweek

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 with the American CIA: tracing the flow of money from well-heeled donors to radical Islamic groups. While spending her days poolside and her nights at lively dinner parties, Lulu observes the fragile coexistence of two cultures that, if not clashing yet, 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. The more Lulu immerses herself in the workings of Marrakech, the more questions emerge; when bombs explode, the danger is palpable.

About The Author

Diane Johnson is the bestselling author of fourteen previous books, including Le Divorce, Le Mariage, and L’Affaire. A two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a three-time finalist for the National Book Award, she lives in Paris and San Francisco.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Nancy on November 11, 2008

How could a book called Lulu in Marrakech fail to please?! I was seduced by the saucy title, the potential of an arm-chair adventure in an exotic city, and the reputation of the author as a finalist for the National Book Award. But, you certainly can't judge a book by its cover. It could just as well......more

Goodreads review by Sara on April 28, 2009

After reading this book, I fail to understand how the author has been nominated multiple times for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Maybe, as others have noted, it's just this book that is bad; unfortunately, I was not inspired enough by the book to want to read any more of the author......more

Goodreads review by Amy on October 21, 2012

A young-ish CIA agent (Lulu) is stationed in Marrakech because her lover provides the perfect cover as well as an entree into the local expatriot scene. She is to collect information about the flow of money through non-profit organizations to terrorists. The mission is passive and nebulous and gives......more

Goodreads review by Edward on September 14, 2009

A satire about an "ordinary" woman who is an intelligence agent precisely because she seems like such a lightweight character who would not arouuse suspicions. But the world of terrorism exists as "poisonous vapors coming up from a chink in a terrible netherworld, and she temporarily succumbs to tho......more

Goodreads review by Rowland on August 02, 2010

To put a mix of different culture into a popular plot, woooww it needs an serious research moreover if the background were settled on "perennial eye infection of colonialism" for example: a gender relation. If you did this well, it's easy to get a literature noble (at least an nominated) but if you f......more

Quotes

“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

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