Seeds of Fiction: Graham Greene's Adventures in Haiti and Central Amercia, 1954-1983

(Hardback)

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In 1965, Graham Greene joined journalist Bernard Diederich in the Dominican Republic to embark on a tour of its border with Haiti, then ruled by 'Papa Doc' Duvalier. They were accompanied by an activist priest, Jean-Claude Bajeux. The famous novelist was 61 and depressed having struggled to finish A Burnt-Out Case and was being plagued by religious doubt; Bajeux, meanwhile, had been informed that his family had been 'disappeared' by Duvalier's henchmen. As this trio travelled along the border they met a number of rebels and other characters later fictionalized in Greene's most politically charged novel, The Comedians, published the following year. This major new biography finally and fully illuminates a pivotal episode in Greene's life and career in the kind of detail that will sate any fans of Graham Greene's work.

Reviews

"One of the finest books yet written on Greene--a triumph of tender recollection and devotion." --"The Spectator"

Author Bio

Bernard Diederich is a journalist, originally from New Zealand, who launched the English-language weekly newspaper the "Haiti Sun" in 1950, and subsequently became the resident correspondent for the Associated Press, the "New York Times," the Time-Life News Service, and London's "Daily Telegraph." In 1963, as a result of his courageous reporting, Diederich was arrested by Papa Doc's Tontons-Makouts, imprisoned, and ultimately expelled from the country. In exile in the Dominican Republic, he was staff foreign correspondent for the Time-Life News service. Richard Greene is an associate professor at the University of Toronto and the editor of "Graham Greene: A Life in Letters." He lives in Cobourg, Ontario. Pico Iyer is an essayist and novelist whose books include" The Man Within My Head" and" The Open Road." He writes for such publications as "Harper's," "New York Review of Books," and "Time."