Looking for a good summer read? So was I.

For vacation reading, I look for something fun and easy to read. I like stories that carry me away from  the first page. That's why I was so excited to find a copy of Graham Greene's The Tenth Man at my local public library. What I love about Graham Greene is that he is an amazing storyteller. His stories are about ordinary, flawed human beings who struggle with their weaknesses in their attempt to do ultimately the right thing. Greene writes these stories with such care and detail that many of his novels have been easily adapted into films, including The End of the Affair, Brighton Rock, and The Quiet American. In fact Greene originally conceived The Tenth Man as a film script idea in 1937 and didn't publish it as a short novel until 1985.

The Tenth Man is particularly good for summer reading. It's only 150 pages long and it is quite action-packed. It tells the story of French prisoners of war held in German camps during WWII. After a crime is committed outside of the prison, the German soldiers announce that one in every ten men will be executed and that they must decide among themselves who will be sacrificed. In order to be as fair as possible, the men draw lots to see who among them will be shot. One of the men who draws a lot marked for execution is a rich lawyer. As he desperately tries to buy his life by bribing the other prisoners, he ultimately makes a deal that will change the course of life, not only for himself, but for many others.

It is a tale of selfishness and selflessness, fear and bravery, shame and redemption. There is love and romance, as well as hatred and violence... All in 150 pages. Not bad, right?