The Heart of the Matter (The collected edition, #6) (Modern English Language Texts)

by Graham Greene

[jamiereadthis]

Fraught with tension, tightly wound; unhappiness as palpable and oppressive as the plaguing African heat.

“In our hearts there is a ruthless dictator, ready to contemplate the misery of a thousand strangers if it will ensure the happiness of the few we love.”

There’s a wrestling at the end with the concept of mercy, God’s vs. ours, and it’s one of the greatest things I’ve read in this last slew of books, where it comes down: “He never had any trust in mercy except for other people.”