This is such a sad novel, a real classic, loosely based on an affair Graham Greene had in real life. The narrator is Maurice Bendrix, a rational but flawed and jealous man, a moderately successful novelist, who meets and starts an affair with a married woman, Sarah, during the Second World War. The main events in the novel are described 6 or so years later, when the affair has ended with significant impacts on both parties, and the novel also describes other tragic events that befall the characters. The main philosophical thrust of the book , however, is faith or the lack of it, and the existence or otherwise of God, and how ones belief effects ones behaviour and morality. It's a powerful and moving novel, regardless of the readers stance on this, and despite the main character being rather unsympathetic. Dense, but compact, it's a reminder that novels don't have to be long to have an impact.