The Tenth Man

This book is not purchasable in your country. Please select another book.

Listen to a sample

What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

In a prison in Occupied France during the Second World War, the order is given that every tenth inmate is to be executed. Louis Chavel, a rich lawyer, draws the short straw and barters everything he owns to exchange places with another man and survive. Destitute but free, Chavel later returns to the house that he sold for his life, where he must face the consequences of his cowardice and seek redemption.

©Graham Greene 1985 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Critics Review

  • Greene was a past master of the psychological thriller and this was no exception

    Observer
  • A masterpiece – tapped out in the lean, sharp prose that film work taught Greene to perfect

    Sunday Times
  • All of the Greene hallmarks are there: pace, ingenuity, a sense of profundities suggested but never insisted upon

    Sunday Telegraph
  • Typically full of psychological obsession and tricks of perspective, this short story plays games with the concepts of identity and freedom. Threaded through with paranoiac attempts to be sure of time, life, and death, the story ends with impenetrable paradox; with a tragedy and a travesty, a revenge and a redressal, truth and the ultimate lie

    The Times

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to get tailored content recommendations, product updates and info on new releases. Your data is your own: we commit to protect your data and respect your privacy.