Major Henry Scobie serves as a police officer in a British West African colony during the Second World War, a devout Catholic torn between duty and love.Stationed in a coastal colonial outpost in wartime West Africa, 1940s, Scobie prides himself on his incorruptibility. Yet as merchant ships crowd the harbour and the war tightens its grip on the empire, his private life begins to unravel. His wife Louise longs to escape the heat and isolation of the colony, and Scobie, desperate to ease her suffering, borrows money from a corrupt trader – a compromise that entangles him in blackmail.When he falls in love with Helen Rolt, a young widow shattered by loss at sea, Scobie finds himself divided between compassion and betrayal. Each lie told to protect one-woman wounds another; each attempt at mercy becomes a sin against his faith. His Catholic conscience offers no comfort, only a harsher reckoning.Set against the uneasy hierarchies and racial tensions of a British West African colony during the Second World War, The Heart of the Matter is mid-twentieth-century historical fiction driven by moral conflict.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2010-10-02
Språk:Engelska
Filformat:EPUB
Kopieringsskydd:LCP
ISBN:9781407086620
Förlag:Vintage Publishing

Utforska kategorier

Mer om författaren

Graham Greene was born in 1904. He worked as a journalist and critic, and in 1940 became literary editor of the Spectator. He was later employed by the Foreign Office. As well as his many novels, Graham Greene wrote several collections of short stories, four travel books, six plays, three books of autobiography, two of biography and four books for children. He also wrote hundreds of essays, and film and book reviews. Graham Greene was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour. He died in April 1991.

Recensioner i media

"The most ingenious, inventive and exciting of our novelists, rich in exactly etched and moving portraits of real human beings" -- V. S. Pritchett The Times "Greene was a master of characterisation and this book is no exception" Independent on Sunday "In a class by himself - the ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man's consciousness and anxiety" -- William Golding Independent "A superb storyteller with a gift for provoking controversy" New York Times "Greene had the sharpest eyes for trouble, the finest nose for human weaknesses, and was pitilessly honest in his observations... For experience of a whole century he was the man within" -- Norman Sherry Independent