The Lions

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The Lions (Original: Lie Down with Lions ) is a thriller by the British writer Ken Follett . The book was published in 1986 and became a great success.

prehistory

The CIA agent John Michael Raleigh is under his code name Ellis Thaler in Paris to neutralize terrorists and their backers. His contact is the beautiful Jane Lambert, with whom he falls in love. Jane's circle of friends includes everyone he is looking for. Especially revolutionary groups that have already carried out several attacks in France. Jane, who would not accept that he works for the CIA, has no idea and begins an affair with Ellis. However, until he has finished his work, he cannot make any promises to Jane, and when she no longer wants to wait any longer, she presents him with an ultimatum. However, Ellis succeeds in arresting the masterminds of the attacks and, above all, their financiers by the KGB in Paris. When he can tell Jane the truth, Jean-Pierre Debout, who is a communist and works for the other side, turned Jane against Ellis and sets a trap for him. Ellis has no choice but to flee. Jean-Pierre can persuade Jane to marry him and go with him on a relief mission to Afghanistan. Jean-Pierre is a doctor and Jane is supposed to assist him there after she was hastily trained as a nurse in Paris.

action

In Afghanistan, Jane quickly becomes disillusioned. She is frustrated with the war and the senseless killing, she is alone a lot and her marriage to Jean-Pierre is not going as she imagined. She deliberately stopped using contraceptives and had a child in Afghanistan. Ellis works for the CIA in Washington, but can't forget Jane. His superiors suspected this and gave him a good reason to report more or less voluntarily to a mission in Afghanistan: He was supposed to unite warring tribal leaders in the fight against the Soviet Union in the country and to guarantee them arms deliveries - especially portable anti-aircraft missiles - in return . Hoping to see Jane again, Ellis agrees. Jane has since found out that Jean-Pierre is a spy too, and is deeply disappointed that she fell for such men twice. She destroys Jean-Pierre's radio and forces him to return to France when Ellis suddenly appears in her village and is actually able to arrange a meeting with Masoud and two other important leaders of the Afghan resistance. However, Jean-Pierre manages to inform his contact, KGB Colonel Anatoli in Kabul, in order to surprise the tribal leaders at their meeting and to eliminate the resistance in Afghanistan. Jane, however, reveals herself to Ellis, who, together with Masoud, uses this knowledge to set a trap for the Russian attackers himself. Jane also finds that she has never stopped loving Ellis, and after he tells her that her friends in Paris were killers and terrorists he hunted down, she eventually forgives him and the two grow closer again. The attack by the Russians is successfully repulsed, the contract between the rebels is concluded and Jane and Ellis find each other again. After spending a night outdoors together, the Russians use several helicopters to search Jane's village but find neither her nor Ellis. Everyone in the village knows that Jean-Pierre is on the side of the Russians, but since Jane has made many friends and was not guilty of anything, most of the villagers support her. However, Ellis is clear that he must leave the country with the agreement as soon as possible, otherwise he risks being captured and playing into the cards of the Russian propaganda. Jane doesn't want to go back to her husband either and under no circumstances part with Ellis, so she flees with Ellis and their few month old daughter Chantal on foot through the rough landscape of Afghanistan to reach the border with Pakistan. A murderous hunt begins, which only ends in the Himalayas, where Ellis, Jane, Jean-Pierre and Anatoli face each other for the last time.

Ellis and Jane finally manage to escape. Back in America, Ellis retires from active service with the CIA and proposes marriage to Jane.

Historical background

Most of the characters and acts in the novel are fictitious by the author. However, the war in Afghanistan was real, as was the historical character of Ahmad Shah Massoud dealt with in the novel . The efforts of the CIA to equip the resistance with weapons - especially portable anti-aircraft weapons - are historically documented.

filming

The book was filmed in 1994 by Jim Goddard with Timothy Dalton , Marg Helgenberger , Nigel Havers , Omar Sharif , Kabir Bedi and Jürgen Prochnow as Ken Follett's Red Eagle .

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