Scobie, a police officer serving in a war-time West African
state, is distrusted, being scrupulously honest and immune
to bribery. But then he falls in love, and in doing so is
forced to betray everything he believes in, with tragic
consequences.nn"Wilson sat on the balcony of the Bedford
Hotel with his bald pink knees thrust against the
ironwork..."nnGraham Greene's masterpiece The Heart of the
Matter tells the story of a good man enmeshed in love,
intrigue, and evil in a West African coastal town. Scobie is
bound by strict integrity to his role as assistant police
commissioner and by severe responsibility to his wife,
Louise, for whom he cares with a fatal pity.nnWhen Scobie
falls in love with the young widow Helen, he finds vital
passion again yielding to pity, integrity giving way to
deceit and dishonor—a vortex leading directly to murder. As
Scobie's world crumbles, his personal crisis makes for a
novel that is suspenseful, fascinating, and, finally,
tragic.nnOriginally published in 1948, The Heart of the
Matter is the unforgettable portrait of one man, flawed yet
heroic, destroyed and redeemed by a terrible conflict of
passion and faith.n