Books

The most famous and important novel in South Africa's history, and 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. 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. In Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country the statesman, the poet and the novelist meet in a unique harmony." "The greatest novel to emerge out of the tragedy of South Africa, and one of the best novels of our time" (The New Republic). Two cinema adaptations of the book have been made, the first in 1951, which was directed by Zoltan Korda, starring Canada Lee, Sidney Poitier, and Charles Carson. The second in 1995, starring James Earl Jones and Richard Harris. The novel was also adapted as a musical called Lost in the Stars (1949), with a book by the American writer Maxwell Anderson and music composed by the German emigre Kurt Weill.

Cry, the Beloved Country is a profound and moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his journey to a city in search of his missing son. Set in South Africa, it vividly captures the fervor and turmoil of a crumbling society, delving deep into themes of racial injustice, forgiveness, and redemption.