Those Beautiful Eyes

About the Book

This lushly beautiful novel glides smoothly between ancient and modern realities, from temple gardens to San Francisco bedrooms, Greek Islands and African riverboats, giving a far-reaching perspective on human desire and compassion.

In a farming village between Mesopotamia and Mohenjo-Daro, 2700 B.C., a young mother is about to become a medicine woman. Anarisha lies ill with fever that takes her into other identities. She lives out an alternative present, as priestess/courtesan of the goddess Inanna, and visits the lives of her own descendants-married multiracial filmmaker Michael Dagan; Michael's obsession, the beautiful Maria; and his "player" businessman father, David―global-villagers of the 20/21st century. Within interconnected worlds, each a netherworld of self-delusion, Anarisha faces her greatest challenge. She must transcend the power of earthly attachment to reach the farther shore, as the Buddha named it, of all-seeing compassion.

With exquisite voice, Lutzky provides a spellbinding experience of Anarisha's journey to serene awareness. Current intriguing knowledge of ancient archetypes, rituals, mythology and culture is interwoven with abundant insights into our last five decades-especially concerning nature and male/female relationship. Like beautiful eyes, this mesmerizing saga of the human family is both erotic and spiritual as it contemplates passion, impermanence, and transformation.

About the Author

Like the ?Patriarcha-Dagans? of her novel, Ann Cowart Lutzky?s family is Spanish-Filipino, European-American and Russian-Jewish. Lutzky is from Oakland, California, and is married, with a son (1974-1998) and a twenty-year-old daughter. She graduated in philosophy from U.C. Berkeley in l967 and has taught and counseled in Africa and the U.S.