--- description: Find out why 'The Quiet American' by Graham Greene made the list. title: The Quiet American: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt889d086114301497/698a40800116820af29836e6/TheQuietAmerican.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 03, 2023 # The Quiet American by Graham Greene by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Graham Greene’s 1955 novel _The Quiet American_ fuses a murder mystery with a scathing critique of [U.S. involvement](https://time.com/vietnam-photos/ "undefined") in 1950s Vietnamese politics in the midst of French occupation. The story is told from the perspective of Thomas Fowler, a British foreign correspondent reporting in Saigon. It touches on his friendship with CIA agent Alden Pyle, a young idealist sent by Washington to promote democracy. Things take a turn when Pyle falls for Fowler’s local mistress Phuong—a love triangle that can be read as a political parable of the struggle for power in Vietnam. When a bomb kills and injures locals at a cafe, Fowler is sure that Pyle was involved and becomes determined to stop him—and soon a detective is investigating Pyle’s murder. --- ### More from TIME --- Upon publication, the novel was controversial for its depiction of the U.S., with some readers viewing it as anti-American. But the book was dubbed one of the BBC’s 100 Novels That Shaped Our World in 2022, and it was twice adapted for screen, in 1958 and 2002\. The latter adaptation, by director Phillip Noyce, starred Brendan Fraser and Michael Caine as the American and the Brit, respectively, with the latter earning an Academy Award nomination.—_Armani Syed_ **Buy Now:** _The Quiet American_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780143039020 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/46cQOyh "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309179/the-quiet-american/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309179/the-quiet-american/"},"headline":"The Quiet American","datePublished":"2023-10-03T11:56:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:20:46.577Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309179/the-quiet-american/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt889d086114301497/698a40800116820af29836e6/TheQuietAmerican.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt889d086114301497/698a40800116820af29836e6/TheQuietAmerican.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309179/the-quiet-american/","name":"The Quiet American"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How We Chose the 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time","description":"Here's how TIME created its 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books list. There are books from 15 different countries, and no author appears on the list more than once.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bNzuDcsg/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-10-02T16:54:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bNzuDcsg.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309179/the-quiet-american/","duration":"PT1M35S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309179/the-quiet-american/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```