Cry, the Beloved Country
This book is the most famous and important novel in South Africa's history, and an immediate worldwide bestseller when it was published in 1948. Alan Paton's impassioned novel about a black man's country under white man's law is a work of searing beauty. The eminent literary critic Lewis Gannett wrote, " We have had many novels from statesmen and reformers, almost all bad; many novels from poets, almost all thin. In Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country the statesman, the poet and the novelist meet in a unique harmony." Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man. - Jacket flap.
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In 1946 South Africa, on the eve of apartheid, an elderly Zulu pastor leaves his home village for Johannesburg to find his sister, his brother, and his missing son. The novel watches what the city has done to all three.
Cry, the Beloved Country is fictional but set against the real conditions of late-1940s South Africa, just before the formal start of apartheid in 1948. Alan Paton drew on his work as principal of a reformatory school for Black youth.
Cry, the Beloved Country was widely read in South Africa under apartheid but faced informal pressure rather than formal bans. It has been challenged in some American schools, but it remains widely taught in literature courses about colonialism and apartheid.
Cry, the Beloved Country was written by Alan Paton, published in 1940 by Scribner.
Cry, the Beloved Country is 320 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Cry, the Beloved Country takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
Cry, the Beloved Country is a standalone novel by Alan Paton, not part of a series.
Cry, the Beloved Country is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
