Book Review

Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton

This is our first book discussion book of the year. I read it this weekend as we traveled to a triathlon that my husband was participating in. Eight hours of travel time, plus about five of sitting as he participated in the event. I won't even speculate on what people thought as I sat on an army base, during an Olympic distance triathlon, in my lawn chair reading a book! Most of the people there were either (a) soldiers or (b) participants in a strenuous racing event. Me, I was reading! It is the only exercise I have ever been all that good at!!

I had never heard of this book, and had no idea what to expect. It was exceptionally good.

The book was written by Alan Paton and is set in South Africa in the late 1940s. It is the story of a Zulu pastor and his son. The book is the moving story of a man who is determined, at any cost, to find his missing son. What he finds when he travels to Johannesburg from his small village a full day away by train is a city broken by racial injustice and full of fear.

As Stephen Kumalo is forced to face the many tragedies that await him in the city, he also finds that the human spirit is courageous and enduring.

The back of the book calls this story the "most famous and important novel in South Africa's history." It truly is a story that begs to be told.

"Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear."