Book Eleven 2014: 

The Quiet American by Graham Greene

Reading Graham Greene is part of my drive I started at Christmas to read more novels from pre-1960 by what are broadly referred to as “classic authors”. The ones I thought I’d missed and left behind…

This was not what I expected at all (I was thinking more John LeCarré, more espionage, more political intrigue). Instead it’s a tight, character-driven human interest story (with a fair amount of intrigue in the backdrop, it has to be said) set against the backdrop of Vietnam in the late 50s while the French are still fighting what is a small colonial war.

Well worth your time.