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 most famous and important novel in South Africas history, and an immediate worldwide bestseller when it was published in 1948, Alan Patons impassioned novel about a black mans country under white mans 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 Patons 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.

Examines different aspects of Patons novel about race relations in South Africa, with a biographical sketch of the author and critical essays on this work.