Barry Eisler

Bio

Barry Eisler 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 Kodokan Judo Institute along the way. Eisler’s award-winning thrillers have been included in numerous “Best Of” lists, have been translated into nearly twenty languages, and include the #1 bestsellers The Detachment, Livia Lone, The Night Trade, and The Killer Collective. Eisler lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and, when he’s not writing novels, blogs about national security and the media.

“Best of the Year”
Publishers Weekly

“Top Ten Mystery”
—Amazon.com
“Best of the Year”
News-Press
“Best Thriller of the Year”
Deadly Pleasures Award winner
“Best of the Year”
San Jose Mercury News
“Best Thriller of the Year”
Mystery Ink Gumshoe Award winner
“Best of the Year”
January Magazine
“Recommended Book”
San Francisco Chronicle
Barry Eisler

Photo credit: Douglas Sonders

Barry’s Photo Gallery

Press Highlights

— “Espionage He Wrote,” Punch Magazine
— “The Politics of Thrillers,” Current Affairs Magazine, December 2020
— “Q&A With Best Selling Action / Martial Arts Novelist Barry Eisler Part 1,” Marshal Arts World Report, August 2019
New York Times featured Livia Lone: “Novels that Tackle Sexual Assault,” September 2018
Livia Lone featured on Medium, “Inside the dark world of human trafficking in Barry Eisler’s Livia Lone,” August 2017
— Interviewed on Techdirt podcast, “Episode 148: The Lost Art Of Productive Debate,” December 2017
— Featured in the New York Times, “Six New Thrillers for Fall,” October 2016
Huffington Post feature, “The God’s Eye View, A Conversation with Barry Eisler,” February 2016
Chicago Review of Books interviewed Barry Eisler, “Inside the Dark World of Human Trafficking in Barry Eisler’s Livia Lone,” December 2016
— Featured on The Book Deal, “What writers can learn from Barry Eisler,” June 2012
— Barry Eisler featured on Catherine Ryan Hyde’s “Author Friday,” March 2012
— Interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered for the “Thrilled to Death” summer series, “Barry Eisler: A Grim Future Is Now In 1984,” June 2010
— Publishing Perspectives, “Taking a Page from Conservatives, Barry Eisler Recruits Liberal Media to Promote New Novel,” June 2010
Daily Beast interview, “Barry Eisler Explains Self-Publishing Decision,” March, 2011
— Barry Eisler profiled in SFGate, “After the CIA, Barry Eisler writes thrillers,” July 2010
The Nation praised Barry Eisler novels, “Barry Eisler vs. Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn and Brad Thor,” June 2010
— Author feature in the Japan Times, “Eisler: international author of mystery,” April 2009
— The John Rain series featured on Metropolis Japan, “The Rainmaker,” April 2009
Harper’s Magazine Q&A, “The Blogosphere Thriller: Six Questions for Barry Eisler, Author of Fault Line,” March 2009
Mystery Scene Magazine author feature, “Declassified: the Barry Eisler Files,” July 2007

Articles

Time Magazine: “Former CIA Officer: President Obama Should Pardon Edward Snowden,” September 2016
The Guardian: “If Dianne Feinstein is Michael Corleone in the CIA-Senate war, will she shoot?” March 2014
The Guardian: “The war on Amazon is Big Publishing’s 1% moment. What about other writers?” June 2014
Huffington Post: “Torture Tales,” May 2011

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