Book
The Heart of the Matter
Buy the book from:
Audio available
Major Scobie serves as a colonial police officer in a British West African port during the Second World War. His reputation for honesty cannot solve his domestic unhappiness or provide the money his wife Louise needs to leave the colony, and a loan from the Syrian merchant Yusef compromises the independence on which Scobie has built his identity.
After beginning an affair with the widowed Helen Rolt, Scobie attempts to protect both women while remaining a practising Catholic. Every act intended to spare another person causes further deception and spiritual fear. The colonial administration, wartime shipping and black-market economy create the external pressures around a tragedy driven by pity and an impossible sense of responsibility.
Historical periods
More by the author
Other books by Graham Greene
