Home
/
Fiction
/
Cry, The Beloved Country
Cry, The Beloved Country
Jan 14, 2026 1:05 PM

Author:Alan Paton

Cry, The Beloved Country

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.

Reviews

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

His writing gives off whiffs of Conrad, of Nabokov, of Golding, of the Paul Theroux of The Mosquito Coast. But he is none of these, he is a harsh, compelling voice

—— Sunday Times

Intense, clear and powerful. The promise, so brilliantly fulfilled in his later work, is clear in this earliest novel

—— Daily Telegraph

[An] ultra-funny, ultra-detailed take on the mores and manners of the West London super-rich.

—— Daily Mail

Slowly, devilishly roasts her characters in the flames of a hundred Diptyque scented candles.

—— The Spectator

A lot of fun along the way

—— Observer

Fast-paced, fizzy . . . fun beach reading.

—— The Lady

Glorious fun

—— Tatler

I just loved it. Lethally funny and so clever.

—— Jilly Cooper

I ADORED it. It's the most fun I've had with a book in a long time, and I love how she writes - so many dazzling sentences and phrases.

—— Marian Keyes

Sparkling savage and remarkably sexy.

—— Daisy Goodwin

A wickedly funny, biting satire of Notting Hill's basement-digging class. My absolute guiltiest read this summer.

—— Plum Sykes

The Jane Austen of W11

—— Scotsman on Winter Games

An addictively funny read about the lives of the rich and richer. Four stars

—— Heat on Notting Hell

Smart, pacy, and hysterically funny

—— Deirdre O’Brien , Sunday Mirror

This provocative debut explores whether monogamy is all it’s cracked up to be

—— Glamour

Witty, sparkling and a dissection of monogamy and happiness... Entertaining

—— Lady

Here is a heroine who scores a solid ten on the sass-o-meter, and she made the whole reading experience a hoot… Guilt-free fun with this deliciously rampant romp.

—— Sarah Hughes , Heat
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved