Book summary

Graham Greene's 1951 novel centers on the attempt of Maurice Bendix, a London novelist, to learn why his lover, Sarah, had abandoned him without a word of explanation several years before. In the course of the story, Sarah dies, and Maurice comes into possession of her journal, which provides an explanation that is hardly less perplexing to him than the original mystery itself. The novel is permeated with the concepts of sin, guilt, and redemption, and is considered one of Greene's most "Catholic" works, though Greene himself rejected that label. The story is drawn partly from his 10-year affair with Catherine Walston, a married woman (and convert to Catholicism) he met in 1946.

Media reviews

"One of the best, most true and moving novels of my time, in anybody's language."