From the Bookshelf of Reading the World…

Cry, the Beloved Country

Alan Paton

Start date: October 11, 2018

Finish date: October 31, 2018

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What Members Thought

Apr 09, 2014 Celia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle-list, 52-2018, ten-year-challenge, 1001-challenge, well-read-world-lit, 2018-read, reading-the-wrld, not-translate, reading-the-world-read

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton 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.

I read this book for two reasons:
1) I am participating in a group that plans to read at least one book from every country in the world. I had read this book set in South Africa in 1946 once before and wanted to read it again.
2) I was born in 1948 and that is when Apartheid started in South Africa.

Apa ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Feb 08, 2019 Shirley (stampartiste) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-classics, challenge-back-to-the-classics-2018, challenge-bingo-2018

Somehow my original review disappeared from this site. This book affected me greatly the first time I read it (November 2018), and it affected me just as deeply this second time. It is such a beautifully-written book about a terrible problem which Paton witnessed in South Africa in the first half of the 20th century, before apartheid became the law of the land. He describes how bad farming practices led to drought, which destroyed the livelihood of the various tribes and forced the young people ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Oct 20, 2018 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-the-world-2018-2020, read-the-world, 1001-books, africa-or-african, oprah-bookclub

At times this book brought me to tears and at other times I felt filled with joy and hope. Mr Paton wrote a story of pain, and difficulty, with beautiful, poetic and often lyrical words that made me stop reading and review the words just to experience them again. I finished it a few days ago and have avoided writing a review because it is one of those books which I have no idea how to review. I didn't really enjoy the story but I don't think that one is meant to enjoy something which exposes so ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Sep 12, 2018 Diane Zwang rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, africa, friendship

“Goodnight, Msimangu, friend of friends. And may God watch over you always.”

I loved everything about this book; the story, the characters, the history and the scenery. Oh, to spend a day with pastors Stephen Kumalo and Msimangu. What great people whose moral compass are always pointed in the right direction.

Stephen Kumalo who lived in a small rural village in South Africa leaves on a great journey to find his sister who is reportedly in trouble. He also wishes to find his son who also departed ...more

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