I discovered Graham Greene more than a decade ago while passing through a military base in Kyrgyzstan. After reading The Human Factor, I kept reading his novels until there weren’t any more to read—except for Rumour at Nightfall, an early novel that Greene himself considered so bad that he suppressed it.

Greene was a master of character, plot, and tension. His novels also wrestle with religious themes, making them more complex. His Catholicism shaped his writing, and the moral and spiritual tensions he explores touch on faith, sin, and redemption. Though presented as Catholic, Greene’s questions about guilt and belief remain entirely relatable for Protestants.

One of my favorite introductions to Greene comes from the marketing copy on the back flap of a children’s book he wrote:

Graham Greene is a celebrated English novelist and playwright whose works are widely read throughout the world. In major novels such as The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter and The End of the Affair, his heroes realize their sins and achieve salvation only through pain and soul-searching agony. His “entertainments” include Orient Express and The Third Man, whose film versions are regarded as classics today.

For me, Greene’s work remains endlessly fascinating and entertaining. If you’re interested in trying his novels, I’ve ranked them below according to my own favorites.

1. Our Man in Havana
2. The Heart of the Matter
3. The Quiet American
4. The Comedians
5. The Honorary Consul
6. Travels with My Aunt
7. The End of the Affair
8. The Ministry of Fear
9. The Man Within
10. The Power and the Glory (also published as The Labyrinthine Ways)
11. A Burnt-Out Case
12. Loser Takes All
13. The Third Man
14. The Human Factor
15. A Gun for Sale (also published as This Gun for Hire)
16. Brighton Rock
17. Stamboul Train (also published as Orient Express)
18. Monsignor Quixote
19. The Tenth Man
20. Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party
21. England Made Me (also published as The Shipwrecked)
22. The Captain and the Enemy
23. The Name of Action
24. The Confidential Agent
25. It’s a Battlefield

And if you enjoy audiobooks, Our Man in Havana is really fun to listen to.