The heart of the matter

By Graham Greene

Subjects: West africa in fiction, Colonies, Marriage, Great Britain in fiction, Adultery, Catholics, British in fiction, Fiction, general, Large type books, Marriage, fiction, Catholics in fiction, Married people in fiction, Fiction, British, Fiction, religious, Married people, British and irish fiction (fictional works by one author), Africa, fiction, Fiction, christian, general, Fiction, psychological, Married people, fiction, Colonial administrators, Adultery in fiction, Colonial administrators in fiction

Description: Focusing on a British police officer in an unnamed West African colony, this novel attempts to show, along with the socially restricted lives of colonists in Africa, the effects of sin on a devout catholic. After sending his unhappy wife to South Africa at her request the officer begins an affair with a young woman, a survivor of a shipwreck and now widowed but is unable to end the relationship when his wife returns even though he feels he is committing a mortal sin.