Name: The Human Factor
ISBN: 9781409027072

The Human Factor

"In the low-key but treacherous domain of "the firm," Maurice Castle performs routine intelligence duties that are less than world-shattering. Then a new security chief, "a broom," is appointed. As he sweeps through the department, he uncovers a leak, a systematic betrayal involving the major powers in South Africa. Castle's associate, Davis, had access to the files in question and his drinking, gambling, and incurable romanticism make him a likely double agent. Castle himself is above suspicion; he had always been very careful. Except when he fell in love." (From first page Avon paperback February, 1979)

What Hacker News says

billfruitJan 2023

I think Graham Greene isn't appreciated much now. His " Human Factor" for example is a superlative example of a spy novel.

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billfruitMar 2021

Recently reading Graham Greene's The Human Factor, its portrayal of Western Intelligence agencies being mired in moral ambiguity and beurocratic confusions was compelling reading. I hear it was even made into a rather successful film.

(Spoiler below.) . . . . . . .

I wonder how the film or book would be received now, where it shows the protagonist who is an MI6 officer defecting to the USSR at the end of it.

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dhosekMar 2021

Yep, it was retitled for the US market. That, incidentally, happened with a number of Greene's earlier novels (A Gun for Sale, for example, became This Gun for Hire). Later U.S. editions restored the original titles. Interestingly, a request from the publisher to retitle his late novel, The Human Factor, led to Greene changing publishers so while everything before that was published by Viking Penguin, beginning with The Human Factor, his U.S. publisher was Simon & Schuster (and later Reinhardt Books, owned by a friend, for his last novel and the miscellaneous books that gathered many of his uncollected shorter writings).

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