The Human Factor - Softcover

Greene Graham

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140049568 ISBN 13: 9780140049565

Publisher: Penguin, 1979

Synopsis

Maurice Castle is a high-level operative in the British secret service during the Cold War. He is deeply in love with his African wife, who escaped apartheid South Africa with the help of his communist friend. Despite his misgivings, Castle decides to act as a double agent, passing information to the Soviets to help his in-laws in South Africa. In order to evade detection, he allows his assistant to be wrongly identified as the source of the leaks. But when suspicions remain, Castle is forced to make an even more excruciating sacrifice to save himself. Originally published in 1978, "The Human Factor "is an exciting novel of espionage drawn from Greene's own experiences in MI6 during World War II, and ultimately a deeply humanistic examination of the very nature of loyalty. This edition features a new introduction by Colm Toibin.

About this title

Review:

"The Human Factor" is Greene's most extensive attempt to incorporate into fiction what he had learned of espionage when recruited by MI6 during World War II . . . What it offers is a veteran excursion into Greene's imaginative world . . . Sometimes seen as a brooding prober into the dark recesses of the soul where sins and scruples alike fester, he is equally at home in sending a narrative careering along at break-neck pace . . . Raising the demarcation line between 'serious' fiction and fast-plotted entertainment, Greene ensures that components of both jostle energizingly together in his pages." -from the Introduction by Peter Kemp

From the Publisher:

With a new introduction by Colm Toibin

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1979
• ISBN 10: 0140049568
• ISBN 13: 9780140049565
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 272