Cry, the Beloved Country

by Alan Paton
5 Stars
Setting: South Africa
320 pages
Published 1944

Ellie's Review
I think this is my favorite novel I've read lately! This is a wonderful story that is beautifully written. The themes are universal, yet I also learned so much about South Africa. I listened to the audiobook, and the lady performing it has a beautiful voice and made the African words come alive (if I read it, I'm afraid I would have skipped over the foreign words and not heard their beauty).

Book Summary
Cry, the Beloved Country stands as a singularly important novel in twentieth-century South African literature. 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 South Africa and a people driven by racial injustice. Unforgettable for character and incident, it is a novel of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.