Confidential Agent

Published in 1938, Graham Greene classed this espionage novel as one of his "entertainments." It concerns the efforts of Mr. D., the confidential agent of an unnamed country, to buy coal from Britain for his troubled homeland. Greene had the Spanish Civil War in mind as he wrote, but no actual conflict is ever specified. From the moment he sets foot on English soil, D's mission is dogged by violence and confusion. Graham Greene wrote THE CONFIDENTIAL AGENT in just six weeks, under the influence of Benzedrine--2000 words every morning. (In the afternoons, he was working on THE POWER AND THE GLORY.) In Greene's words (from his autobiography, WAYS OF ESCAPE), THE CONFIDENTIAL AGENT is about "the hunted man who becomes in turn the hunter, the peaceful man who turns at bay, the man who has learned to love justice by suffering injustice."