Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

An Oprah Book Club selection, Cry, the Beloved Country, the most famous and important novel in South Africa’s history, was an immediate worldwide bestseller 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, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. 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. 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. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much. 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.” 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.

- Google

The 280th greatest fiction book of all time


This book is on the following lists:

  1. - 5th on Top 100 World Literature Titles (Perfection Learning)
  2. - 94th on Waterstone's Books of the Century (LibraryThing)
  3. - Select 100 (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
  4. - 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (The Book)
  5. - The New York Public Library's Books of the Century (New York Public Library)

Buy This Book

Name Binding Sales Rank Lowest New Lowest Used Published
Cry, The Beloved Country Paperback 516819 $1.64 $0.01
Cry, the Beloved Country Kindle Edition 39011 2003
Cry, The Beloved Country Paperback 600875 $4.00 $0.45
Cry, the Beloved Country Mass Market Paperback 1968792 $13.38 $0.34
Cry, the Beloved Country [UNABRIDGED] Audio CD 2770538 $70.00 $11.00 2003
Cry, the Beloved Country (Oprah's Book Club) [Paperback] [2003] First Paperback Edition Ed. Alan Paton Paperback 3127899 $16.87 $7.84 2003
Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton 1st (first) Scribner Paper Edition [Paperback(1995/1/1)] Paperback 1670429 $33.76 $0.04 1987
Sparknotes Cry, the Beloved Country Paperback 1259099 $29.99 $2.29 2002
Cry, the Beloved Country & MP3 Pack: Level 6 (Penguin Readers (Graded Readers)) Paperback 2962343 $12.20 $15.27 2013
Cry, The Beloved Country (A Scribner Classic) Paperback 1241819 $3.20 $0.01 1987
Cry, The Beloved Country Audio CD 2799929 $50.40 $50.00 2008
Cry, The Beloved Country Audio CD 1656009 $16.99 $1.90
Cry, the Beloved Country Paperback 1222769 $11.00 $0.01
Cry, the Beloved Country - Multiple Critical Perspectives Paperback 5647032 $19.99 $13.22 2009
Cry , The Beloved Country, Arabic English Paperback 579521 $18.00
By Alan Paton Cry, The Beloved Country: A Story of Comfort and Desolation [Paperback] Paperback 2982738 $54.48 $5.88 2008
Lost in the stars; the dramatization of Alan Paton's novel Cry, the beloved country Hardcover 1396752 $3.70
Cry, The Beloved Country: A Verse Drama Hardcover 4211631 $4.86 1948
Cry, the Beloved Country Paperback 10695914 $3.93
Cry, the Beloved Country Paperback 1623415 $12.20 $1.38
Cry, the Beloved Country: A Verse Drama adapted from the Novel by Alan Paton Paperback 12272009 $3.95
CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY. A Verse Drama. Adapted from Alan Paton's Novel by Felicia Komai with the Collaboration of Josephine Douglas. Hardcover 20516766 $6.99
CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY Hardcover 1432489 $4.59
Cry, the Beloved Country Mass Market Paperback 7894511 $4.90
Cry, the Beloved Country (Scribner Classics) Hardcover 769763 $19.81 $1.44 2003
Cry, the Beloved Country Publisher: Scribner Hardcover 1488175 $34.25 $2.56
Cry the Beloved Country (Greenhaven Press Literary Companion to World Literature) Paperback 10052457 $3,985.99 $6.86 2000
Readings on Cry, the Beloved Country (Greenhaven Press Literary Companion to World Literature) Library Binding 12402023 $36.20 $4.45 2000
Cry, the Beloved Country (Blackstone Audio Classics Collection) Audio CD 741345 $12.57 $7.63 2008
Cry, the Beloved Country (Oprah's Book Club) (Edition First Paperback Edit) by Paton, Alan [paperback(2003£©] Paperback 4481765 $19.94 $4.54 2003
Cry, the Beloved Country (Oprah's Book Club) Paperback 719132 $2.45 $0.01 2003
Cry, the Beloved Country Trade Paperback Edit Edition by Paton, Alan published by Scribner (2003) Paperback Paperback 1566167 $11.17 $2.50
Cry, the Beloved Country Paperback 16162 $7.09 $0.75 2003