Cry, the Beloved Country

“The greatest novel to emerge out of the tragedy of South Africa, and one of the best novels of our time.” —The New Republic “A beautiful novel…its writing is so fresh, its projection of character so immediate and full, its events so compelling, and its understanding so compassionate that to read the book is to share intimately, even to the point of catharsis, in the grave human experience.” —The New York Times Among the most famous and important novels in South Africa's history and an immediate international bestseller, Alan Paton's impassioned story about a Black man's country under white man's law is a work of searing beauty. A worldwide bestseller when first published in 1948 and an Oprah’s Book Club pick in 2003, Alan Paton’s impassioned novel about a Black man’s country under white man’s law is a classic of South African literature and an enduring work of searing beauty. Cry, the Beloved Country follows the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, who commits a terrible crime that unexpectedly brings together two fathers—one Black, one white—in a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Set in pre-apartheid South Africa, the novel explores the racial prejudice and social conditions that created it, offering a stark reminder of a painful past; yet, in the words of Nelson Mandela, the story also serves as “a monument to the future.”