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  • Published: 2 September 2002
  • ISBN: 9780099766810
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $19.99

Cry, The Beloved Country



First published in 1948, Cry The Beloved Country stands as the single most important novel in twentieth-century South African literature.

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 contemporaneity, 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.

  • Published: 2 September 2002
  • ISBN: 9780099766810
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $19.99

About the author

Alan Paton

Alan Paton was born on January 11, 1903 in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Paton became a science teacher in 1925, the start of a varied career, which ran parallel to his writing. He died in 1988.

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Praise for Cry, The Beloved Country

A beautiful novel, rich, firm and moving-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 treated.

New York Times

The greatest novel to emerge out of the tragedy of South Africa and one of the best novels of our time

The New Republic