The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

Do I in fact of my own will choose that black wet January night on the Common, in 1946, the sight of Henry Miles slanting across the wide river of rain, or did these images choose me?
When Graham Greene died in 1991 Kinsley Amis called him ‘until today, our greatest living novelist’. Having re-read The End of the Affair I am inclined to agree. Published in 1951, it still reads well, evoking a war-time love affair that began in London during the Blitz. It is the perfect novel to read on dark January days and cold winter nights.
A memorable passage recalls Bendrix going to the cinema with Sarah to watch a film adapted from one of his novels.
At first I had said to her, ‘That’s not what I wrote you know,’ but couldn’t keep on saying that. Suddenly and unexpectedly, for a few minutes only, the film came to life. I forgot that this was my story, and that for one this was my dialogue and was genuinely moved by a small scene in a cheap restaurant.
For a few seconds I was happy – this was writing: I wasn’t interested in anything else in the world. I wanted to go home and read the scene over: I wanted to work at something new…
His obsession with his lost love draws him to find out the truth. Bendrix hires a private detective to find out what really happened to end his love affair with Sarah Miles two years ago.