The Ministry of Fear
First published 1943 · English · 224 pages
- Novels
- Historical fiction
- War
- Thriller and suspense
In London during the Blitz, Arthur Rowe wins a cake at a village fête by chance and unknowingly stumbles into a network of spies. Having recently been released from an institution, and carrying a heavy private burden, he finds that nobody around him can be trusted and that his own memory may not be reliable. The book blends wartime suspense with a dreamlike sense of dread, and examines guilt, pity and the fragility of ordinary life under threat.
Quotes
It is impossible to go through life without trust: that is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself.
Thrillers are like life—more like life than you are … it’s what we’ve all made of the world.
A murderer is regarded by the conventional world as something almost monstrous, but a murderer to himself is only an ordinary man.... It is only if the murderer is a good man that he can be regarded as monstrous.
People don't like reality, they don't like common sense, until age forces it on them.