In 'The Basement Room' a small boy witnesses an event that blights his whole life. Like the other stories in this book (written between 1929 and 1954), it hinges on the themes that dominate Graham Greene's novels--fear, pity and violence, pursuit, betrayal and man's restless search for salvation. Some of the stories are comic--poor Mr Maling's stomach mysteriously broadcasts all sorts of sounds; others are wryly sad--a youthful indiscretion catches up with Mr Carter in 'The Blue Film'. They can be deeply shocking: in 'The Destructors' a gang of children systematically...

Querry, a world-famous architect, is the victim of a terrible attack of indifference: he no longer finds meaning in art or pleasure in life. Arriving anonymously at a Congo leper village, he is diagnosed as the mental equivalent of a "burnt-out case," a leper who has gone through a stage of mutilation. However, as Querry loses himself in work for the lepers his disease of mind slowly approaches a cure. Then the white community finds out who Querry is...

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than...

From master storyteller Graham Greene comes the tale of Anthony Farrant, who has boasted, lied and cheated his way through jobs all over the world. Then his adoring twin sister, Kate, gets him taken on as the bodyguard of Krogh, her lover and boss, a megalomaniac Swedish financier. All goes well until Krogh gives orders that offend Anthony's innate decency. Outraged and blind to risk, he leaks information to Minty, a shabby journalist and fellow victim of life, a decision that will lead to disastrous consequences.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of...

Victor Baxter is a young boy when a secretive stranger known simply as the Captain takes him from his boarding school to live in London. Victor becomes the surrogate son and companion of a woman named Liza, who renames him Jim and depends on him for any news about the world outside their door. Raised in these odd yet touching circumstances, Jim is never quite sure of Liza s relationship to the Captain, who is often away on mysterious errands. It is not until Jim reaches manhood that he confronts the Captain and learns the shocking truth about the man, his allegiances, and the nature of love....

The relentless struggle of the Vietminh guerrillas for independence and the futility of the French gestures of resistance become inseparably meshed with the personal and moral dilemmas of these two men and the Vietnamese woman they both love.

"Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him..."
Graham Greene's chilling expose of violence and gang warfare in the pre-war underworld is a classic of its kind.Pinkie, a teenage gangster on the rise, is devoid of compassion or human feeling, despising weakness of both the spirit and the flesh. Responsible for the razor slashes that killed mob boss Kite and also for the death of Hale, a reporter who threatened the livelihood of the mob, Pinkie is the embodiment of calculated evil. As a Catholic, however, Pinkie is convinced that his...

"Wilson sat on the balcony of the Bedford Hotel with his bald pink knees thrust against the ironwork..."

Graham Greene's masterpiece, The Heart of the Matter, tells the story of a good man enmeshed in love, intrigue, and evil in a West African coastal town. Scobie is bound by strict integrity to his role as assistant police commissioner and by severe responsibility to his wife, Louise, for whom he cares with a fatal pity.

When Scobie falls in love with the young widow Helen, he finds vital passion again yielding to pity, integrity giving way to deceit and...

"I met Aunt Augusta for the first time at my mother's funeral..."
Described by Graham Greene as "the only book I have written just for the fun of it," Travels with My Aunt is the story of Hanry Pulling, a retired and complacent bank manager who meets his septuagenarian Aunt Augusta for the first time at what he supposes to be his mother's funeral. She soon persuades Henry to abandon his dull suburban existence to travel her way--winding through Brighton, Paris, Istanbul, and Paraguay. Through Aunt Augusta, one of Greene's greatest comic creations, Henry joins a...

Graham Greene's classic exploration of love, innocence, and morality in Vietnam

"I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused," Graham Greene's narrator Fowler remarks of Alden Pyle, the eponymous "Quiet American" of what is perhaps the most controversial novel of his career. Pyle is the brash young idealist sent out by Washington on a mysterious mission to Saigon, where the French Army struggles against the Vietminh guerrillas.

As young Pyle's well-intentioned policies blunder into bloodshed, Fowler, a seasoned and cynical British reporter, finds it...

"A master thriller and a remarkable portrait of a twisted character." Time
For Arthur Rowe, the trip to the charity fete was a joyful step back into adolescence, a chance to forget the nightmare of the Blitz and the aching guilt of having mercifully murdered his sick wife. He was surviving alone, outside the war, until he happened to win a cake at the fete. From that moment, he is ruthlessly hunted by Nazi agents and finds himself the prey of malign and shadowy forces. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Alan Furst.

For more than...