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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
A lot
Gang violence, murder, and threats; the casual brutality of Pinkie's world is central to the novel
Language
Some
Some strong language in the hard-edged crime fiction register
Sexual Content
Some
Adult relationships including a coerced marriage; some adult content in the depiction of Pinkie's psychology around sex
Substance Use
Some
Moderate drinking throughout the Brighton seafront setting
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Extremely dark psychological portrait of a conscienceless sociopath alongside Greene's theological framework of sin and grace
What this book is about
Pinkie Brown is a teenage Catholic gang leader in 1930s Brighton who murders a man and then marries an innocent girl to stop her testifying — while a fleshy, cheerful woman named Ida Arnold pursues justice with terrifying persistence. Graham Greene's great novel is a brutal crime story and a theological meditation on the difference between good and evil, grace and damnation.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
A teenage murderer's psychology is the novel's subject
A coerced marriage to an innocent girl
Dark theological meditation on damnation
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