by Nevil Shute (read by Gareth Armstrong) c. 1938
an annual re-read
To what depths would you go to repay a kindness?
During the Great Depression, workaholic merchant banker Henry Warren goes walkabout in Northern England. He ends up in a hospital, after having his wallet lifted by the same people who get him to the hospital. When he arrives at the hospital, he is just another charity case in a hospital full of them. But he is treated kindly during his lengthy stay and wants to do something to repay the town that took care of him.
The best scenes in the book are Warren dealing with the very corrupt officials of a small European backwater nation. It reads like Graham Green's Our Man in Havana. I would say that Shute was channeling Greene if it weren't for the fact that Shute beat Greene to the punch by 20 years.
Four and a half stars
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