Title: The Tenth Man
Author: Graham Greene
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 158
Rating: 8/10
This novel is as short as it is skillfully written, another genuine pleasure from the pen of Graham Greene. In a prison in occupied France, one in every ten prisoners is to be shot. The tenth man, then, is Lewis Chavel, a rich lawyer who picks the short straw. As you can imagine, that gives his character a kind of reluctant charisma, especially after he offers to give all of his money to the beneficiaries of another prisoner if he takes his place, which one man agrees to do.
It’s an incredible idea for a story, and it really draws you in – the rest of the novel focuses on the aftermath of such a transaction, and the evolution of the lawyer’s conscience, which couldn’t have been healthy to begin with. It’s a cracking novel, it really is impressive.