Barry Eisler biography

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Barry Eisler

Barry Eisler

Barry Eisler Biography

Barry Eisler is a best-selling American novelist. He is the author of two thriller series, the first featuring anti-hero John Rain, a half-Japanese, half-American former soldier turned freelance assassin, and a second featuring black ops soldier Ben Treven. Eisler also writes about politics and language on his blog "Heart of the Matter", and at the blogs CHUD, Firedoglake, The Huffington Post, MichaelMoore.com, The Smirking Chimp, and Truthout.

He spent three years in a covert position with the CIA's Directorate of Operations, then worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earning his black belt at the along the way.

Eisler's bestselling thrillers have been translated into nearly twenty languages and have won the Barry Award and the Gumshoe Award for Best Thriller of the Year. In August 2014, Slingshot Global Media announced the launch of a new TV series 'Rain' based on the John Rain Novels. Keanu Reeves will portray the iconic character.

Eisler lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and, when he's not writing novels, blogs about torture, civil liberties, and the rule of law.

Barry Eisler's website

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Interview

Barry Eisler answers questions about the lead character of his book, John Rain, a martial arts expert and assassin; and how he, Eisler, comes to know so much about both espionage and Japan.

Q. Why does Rain like single malt whiskey?
This is a tough one to answer -- why does someone like a certain color? Or a certain way of making love? Beyond the idiosyncrasies of taste, though, Rain's affinity for the single malts might be related to their character, which is formed, more than that of any other spirit, by the environment. Wood, water, air, soil. Barley and peat. The shape of the pot-still. The location and length of maturation. The proximity of the sea. Change one of these or a hundred other variables, and you will produce a recognizably different malt.

And then there's the taste -- so many complex flavors and smells, and yet, when done right, cohering in something harmonious and even sublime.

In all this Rain might find a microcosm of human nature.

Rain also likes the mood of single malts (a case of synesthesia?), something most perfectly expressed in Bar Satoh, a singular whiskey bar in Osaka that, not coincidentally, plays nothing but jazz, and that makes a Tokyo appearance in Rain Fall.

Q. Why does Rain like jazz?
This is another tough one, because musical tastes tend to be idiosyncratic, and our stated reasons for liking something will, upon examination, usually be revealed to have ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Barry Eisler at BookBrowse
Inside Out jacket Fault Line jacket Requiem for an Assassin jacket The Last Assassin jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Barry Eisler but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • John Burdett

    John Burdett

    John Burdett is a nonpracticing lawyer who worked in Hong Kong for a British firm until he found his true vocation as a writer. Since then, he has lived in France and Spain, and Thailand and is now back in Hong Kong. His ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Rain Fall

    Try:
    Bangkok Tattoo
    by John Burdett

  • Clive Cussler

    Clive Cussler

    Clive Cussler grew up in Alhambra, California. He attended Pasadena City College for two years, then enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War and served as an aircraft mechanic and flight engineer in the Military Air ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Rain Fall

    Try:
    Trojan Odyssey
    by Clive Cussler

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