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Our Man In Havana

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Our Man In Havana

By: Graham Greene
Narrated by: Jeremy Northam
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Discover Graham Greene’s blackly comic and timely espionage thriller, set amid the vice and squalor of pre-revolutionary Havana.

'Graham Greene had wit and grace and character and story and a transcendent universal compassion that places him for all time in the ranks of world literature' John Le Carré

Wormold is a vacuum cleaner salesman in a city of power cuts. His adolescent daughter spends his money with a skill that amazes him, so when a mysterious Englishman offers him an extra income he's tempted. In return all he has to do is carry out a little espionage and file a few reports. But when his fake reports start coming true, things suddenly get more complicated and Havana becomes a threatening place.

© Graham Greene 1970 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

 Classics Espionage Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Fiction Suspense

Critic Reviews

As comical, satirical, atmospherical an "entertainment" as he has given us
He had a sharp nose for trouble and injustice. In Our Man In Havana - a witty send-up of an agent's life - it was Cuba before Castro
Nobody should be anywhere near power who hasn't read (or seen the film of) Our Man in Havana, a powerful satire on the silly world of spying by a man who had experienced it
Graham Greene captured a pre-Castro Cuba of daiquiris and decadence... hilarious
British Intelligence being sent up something rotten
The human story is warm and the satire made me laugh out loud (Simon Shepherd)
All stars
Most relevant
A great and wryly amusing story by Greene, and a decent performance by Jeremy Northam, but annoyingly marred by excessive musical breaks. They were so frequent and often lengthy that they seemed like padding to make the product longer. They were unnecessary from a story or ambiance perspective, and really grated after a short time listening. If I want to listen to music I'll subscribe to something else.

Annoying music

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Excellent reading and obviously a Greene classic but every chapter begins with exactly the same cheesey salsa music which serves to vex rather than tickle the imagination.

Why the cheesey salsa?

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Satisfyingly fun and satirical tale. Hijinx subterfuge and pathos in a stereotypical 1950s Cuba.

Good narration

vacuum cleaner salesman turns spy 🕵️‍♂️

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Greene is a great writer and so kept the attention, but this was quite a dull book about somewhat stereotypical characters set in a rather cliched backdrop. Perhaps the book led to the cliches, but this did give the feel of being somewhat dated, in a way I never felt with The Quiet American. There were some very funny moments but it took getting a quarter way through before realising it was a comedy, only for Greene to seemingly back out of that and return to a form of absurdist realism that left the characters half-drawn.

The narration was excellent, but the musical interludes between chapters was misconceived.

Comedy gone slightly stale

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Good story and narration marred by a terrible production decision to add inauthentic and bad 'latin' music between every chapter, of which there are many. Please someone at penguin, edit these out.

Needs a recut

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