The Tenth Man
Graham Greene's 1985 novella was written for film in the 1940s, shelved, and then pulled out and published decades later. In a French prison camp, prisoners draw lots to decide which one of them will be shot; the condemned man trades his wealth for another's life, and the moral debt follows the survivor home. The book is brief, sour, and characteristic of Greene in its fascination with bargains that cannot be kept and souls that cannot be saved on the cheap.Simon & Schuster's edition presents the novella in a small hardcover format, the kind of late Greene reissue that sits uneasily between entertainment and moral fable. Greene understood that guilt is more durable than gratitude, and the novella proves it in under a hundred pages. For readers who like their moral fables short, bitter, and unredeemed.
