Bookatlas
1903–1988Africa
Portrait of Alan Paton

Alan Paton

South Africa

Stately and biblical, short cadenced sentences with the rhythm of scripture or hymn: grief carried in plain words weighted like prayer.

Paton spent much of his early career as principal of a reform school for Black youths outside Johannesburg, reforming its harsh disciplinary regime toward education and trust. In 1946, on a study trip through Scandinavia, England, and the United States to examine prison and reformatory systems, he found himself homesick and increasingly appalled by the racial system he had left behind, and wrote most of Cry, the Beloved Country in hotel rooms along the way.

Published in 1948, the year the National Party formally instituted apartheid, the novel followed a Zulu pastor's search through Johannesburg for his lost son and became South Africa's best-known novel of racial reckoning, selling in the millions internationally. Paton went on to co-found the Liberal Party of South Africa, campaigning against apartheid until the party was banned in 1968, and continued writing until his death in 1988.

Postcolonial Literatures

Their books in the atlas

  1. 1948
    Cover of Cry, the Beloved Country
    Cry, the Beloved Country
    Lvl 4political novel

Meanwhile, elsewhere

Portrait of Halldór Laxness1902–1998Halldór LaxnessIcelandWestern Europe · IcelandPortrait of Nathalie Sarraute1900–1999Nathalie SarrauteFranceWestern Europe · FrancePortrait of Georges Simenon1903–1989Georges SimenonBelgiumWestern Europe · BelgiumPortrait of Sándor Márai1900–1989Sándor MáraiHungaryRussia & Eastern Europe · HungaryPortrait of Isaac Bashevis Singer1902–1991Isaac Bashevis SingerPoland / United StatesNorth America · Poland / United StatesPortrait of Silvina Ocampo1903–1993Silvina OcampoArgentinaLatin America · Argentina

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