The Quiet American

Discover Graham Green& / #8217 / s prescient political masterpiece & / #8216 / The novel that I love the most is The Quiet American& / #8217 / Ian McEwan Into the intrigue and violence of 1950s Indo-China comes CIA agent Alden Pyle, a young idealistic American sent to promote democracy through a mysterious 'Third Force'. As his naive optimism starts to cause bloodshed, his friend Fowler, a cynical foreign correspondent, finds it hard to stand aside and watch. But even as he intervenes he wonders why: for the greater good, or something altogether more complicated? WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ZADIE SMITH One of the BBC& / #8217 / s 100 Novels That Shaped Our World