Cry, the Beloved Country - (Oprah's Classics Book Club Selections) by Alan Paton (Paperback)

About the Book

Paton's deeply moving story of Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set against the backdrop of a land and people riven by racial inequality and injustice, remains the most famous and important novel in South Africa's history. Published to coincide with the Miramax film release in December, starring James Earl Jones and Richard Harris.

Book Synopsis

"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

An Oprah Book Club selection, Cry, the Beloved Country, was 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.

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.

Review Quotes

"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."-- "The 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"

"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."--Literary Critic Lewis Gannett