The heart of the matter

One of Greene's greatest achievements - his anguished story of personal and moral confusion. Scobie - a police officer in a West African colony - is a good man.

People are wary of him, though - disturbed by his scrupulous honesty in a war-torn state where no-one is immune to bribery.

But when he falls in love, Scobie is forced into a betrayal of everything that he has ever believed in, with shattering results, and his struggle to maintain the happiness of two women destroys him.