Hofmeyr and Bishop Geoffrey Clayton among other writings. Paton became a fulltime writer after this novel, producing novels (Too late the Phalarope 1953, Ah, But Your Land is Beautiful 1981), two volumes of his autobiography (Towards the Mountain 1980, Journey Continued 1988), short stories and biographies of J.H. It remains a world bestseller and probably one of the most recognisable titles from this country. It is a searing account of the inhumanity of apartheid told in a lyrical voice which emphasises Paton's love for the land and people of South Africa, and his hope for a change in the future. The publication of Cry, The Beloved Country (1948) made him one of South Africa's best known writers.

The dramatic career change to director of a reformatory for black youths at Diepkloof, near Johannesburg, had a profound effect on his thinking.

He started his career by teaching at a school in Ixopo where he met and married his first wife. 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.Īlan Stewart Paton was born and educated in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. In Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country the statesman, the poet and the novelist meet in a unique harmony.”Ĭry, 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. 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. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or valley. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Alan Paton’s impassioned novel about a black man’s country under white man’s law is a work of searing beauty.Ĭry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Cry, the Beloved Country, the most famous and important novel in South Africa’s history, was an immediate worldwide bestseller in 1948.

Cry the beloved country book cover