booksrockcal 's review for:

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

3.25

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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i read this book for Zoom with Mindy. It is a beautifully written and amazingly evocative book about South Africa. Written in 1948, its precepts are applicable today. In this book a minister’s son living in Johannesburg is convicted of killing the son of a white reformer. The book explores the relationship between these events and the people impacted as a way to explore the conflict on a larger level in South Africa. The book is 76 years old but still relevant today. Unfortunately I read this book in a difficult and fraught time at work when I should have been reading a light rom com or a propulsive thriller and I just could not absorb and appreciate all the details and nuances of what is clearly a brilliant and groundbreaking book