Books by Graham Greene

An important 20th-century author, Graham Greene was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times.

Greene excelled at thrillers and political novels, subjects he knew well; he was an operative for the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, during World War II. Two of his most popular thrillers, and two of my favorites, are The Third Man and the campy, hilarious political satire Our Man in Havana.

The Third Man is a first-class thriller, with believable characters and a gripping plot that takes the reader to an exhilarating finish. Greene first wrote The Third Man as a screenplay, and it’s a terrific film starring Orson Welles, Trevor Howard, Alida Valli, and Joseph Cotten. He later turned the screenplay into a novella that reads like a script; it’s a page-turner and an easy read. In his best books, Greene is a master at leaving you satisfied with the resolution, and that’s the case with the timeless The Third Man.

Our Man in Havana takes a hilarious turn when a vacuum cleaner salesman is recruited to spy for the British. Instead of spying, the salesman (played by Alec Guinness in the film) writes fake intelligence reports that the British are happy to pay substantial sums for. One report details a military installation he sketched out, which was in reality inspired by the inside of a vacuum cleaner. What makes Our Man in Havana even more special is when the plot pivots and the fake reports start coming true.

I am a huge fan of The Quiet American. I think we’ve all seen the kind of damage, including bloodshed, that an uninformed and naive leader with fixed views can do to the world. The Quiet American‘s title character is the perfect example of that unfortunate archetype, and it’s one of the best political novels ever written.

Greene also wrote smart, morally conflicted novels such as The End of the Affair, The Heart of the Matter, The Power and the Glory, and Brighton Rock.

There’s a lot to choose from on a Graham Greene reading list. He was prolific and varied, and many of his novels were made into fine films, some remade decades apart.

Graham Greene Books:

• Our Man in Havana
• The Quiet American
• The End of the Affair
• The Confidential Agent
• The Ministry of Fear
• The Captain and the Enemy
• The Man Within
• Brighton Rock
• The Heart of the Matter
• Travels with My Aunt
• The Third Man
• The Human Factor
• The Comedians
• The Destructors and Other Stories
• It’s a Battlefield
• The Portable Graham Greene
• Graham Greene: A Life In Letters
• Ways of Escape
• In Search of a Character: Two African Journals
• Yours, etc.: Letters to the Press
• Graham Greene: A Life in Letters
• Mornings in the Dark: The Graham Greene Film Reader
• Nineteen Stories

Audiobooks:

• Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
• The Quiet American
• The Power and the Glory
• The End of the Affair
• The Confidential Agent
• The Ministry of Fear
• The Captain and the Enemy
• The Man Within
• The Human Factor
• The Heart of the Matter
• Brighton Rock
• The Comedians
• The Destructors and Other Stories
• It’s a Battlefield
• Collected Short Stories
• A Gun for Sale
• The Honorary Consul
• A Burnt-Out Case
• Monsignor Quixote
• The Tenth Man
• Orient Express
• The Pleasure Dome – Graham Greene: The Collected Film Criticism, 1935-40
• Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party
• England Made Me

You might also enjoy reading the New Yorker’s profile “Graham Greene’s Dark Heart.”

Biographies about Graham Greene:

• The Unquiet Englishman: A Life of Graham Greene
• Too Late to Turn Back: Barbara and Graham Greene in Liberia by Barbara Greene
• The Life of Graham Greene: Volume I: 1904-1939 by Norman Sherry
• The Life of Graham Greene, Vol. 2: 1939-1955 by Norman Sherry
• The Life of Graham Greene, Volume III: 1955-1991 by Norman Sherry
• Graham Greene: Bipolar Catholic by Alex Terego
• Russian Roulette: ‘A brilliant new life of Graham Greene’ – Evening Standard by Richard Greene
• Graham Greene: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations
• Greene on Capri: A Memoir by Shirley Hazzard
• Conversations with Graham Greene

Graham Greene Quotes:

• “Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector.”
• “Like some wines our love could neither mature nor travel.”
• “Hate is a lack of imagination.”
• “Innocence is a kind of insanity”
• “I hate you, God. I hate you as though you actually exist.”
• “You cannot conceive, nor can I, of the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God.”
• “I measured love by the extent of my jealousy.”
• “We forget very easily what gives us pain.”
• “I can never think of you as a friend. You can do without a friend.”
• “Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either extreme egotism, selfishness, evil — or else an absolute ignorance.”
• “Most things disappoint till you look deeper.”
• “When we are not sure, we are alive.”
• “Sooner or later…one has to take sides. If one is to remain human.”
• “I’m tired and I’m sick to death of being without you.”
• “If I’m a bitch and a fake, is there nobody who will love a bitch and a fake?”
• I wish sometimes you had a few bad motives, you might understand a little more about human beings.”
• “So it always is: when you escape to a desert the silence shouts in your ear.”
• “And when we love our sin then we are damned indeed.”
• “One can’t love humanity. One can only love people.”
• “We’d forgive most things if we knew the facts.”
• “As long as one suffers one lives.”
• “There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.”
• “I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused.”
• “What happens if you drop all the things that make you I?”

Find books by Graham Greene on Audiobooks, Amazon/Audible, and Bookstores who are not Amazon.

You might also like some of the Best Mysteries and Thrillers Ever.

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