{"product_id":"paton-alan-cry-the-beloved-country-a-story-of-comfort-in-desolation","title":"PATON, Alan. Cry the Beloved Country: A Story of Comfort in Desolation.","description":"\u003ch3 style=\"font-variant: small-caps\"\u003e‘For Who Can Stop the Heart from Breaking?’\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePATON, Alan.\u003c\/strong\u003e Cry the Beloved Country: A Story of Comfort in Desolation. \u003ci\u003eLondon: Jonathan Cape\u003c\/i\u003e. 1948.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e8vo. Publisher’s oatmeal cloth lettered in red to front board and spine, illustrated dust-jacket with the printed price of 9s. 6d to front flap, tail-edge untrimmed; pp. 296, [3 (blank)]; slight wear to extremities of jacket with short closed tear to rear fold (c. 15 mm) and to foot of spine (c. 25 mm), spine lightly sunned with a few small marks and slight fraying at head, minute burnhole to front flap touching a single character (also visible to front pastedown and free endpaper), two small pieces of cellotape to reverse of jacket, pushing to spine ends, top-edge slightly dusty; a very good copy in like jacket; contemporary ‘Shuter and Shooter’ of Pietermaritzburg bookseller’s label to pastedown (\u003ci\u003esee below\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFirst UK edition, first impression of Alan Paton’s landmark novel, published in the same year apartheid became an official policy in South Africa. This copy has been signed and dated by the author, most likely in his hometown of Pietermaritzburg.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe UK edition was narrowly preceded by the US edition (New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons). \u003ci\u003eCry, the Beloved Country\u003c\/i\u003e follows Reverend Stephen Kumalo who leaves rural Natal for Johannesburg in search of his sister and his son, Absalom. There, he discovers that Absalom has murdered the white farmer and advocate for racial equality Arthur Jarvis in a robbery gone wrong. Through this tragedy and those that follow, Paton examines the racial injustice and poverty that apartheid would intensify.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePaton worked as a director at a youth detention centre for Black South Africans in Diepkloof from 1935. The institution had previously been governed with armed guards and severe discipline, but he encouraged a culture of kindness and forgiveness, dramatically reducing the number of escapees. He began \u003ci\u003eCry, the Beloved Country\u003c\/i\u003e in Norway, and he recalls in his autobiography that he opened by writing about ‘the hills and valleys and mountains’ of South Africa, but realised the ‘story was to be not so much about the beauties of the land, but about its men and women’ (\u003ci\u003eTowards the Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e, p. 268).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlthough the novel is undoubtedly rooted in the political realities of the eve of apartheid, Paton maintained that ‘above all [he] tried to make a story’. (\u003ci\u003eibid.\u003c\/i\u003e, p. 273).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis signed copy bears the contemporary ticket of the booksellers and publishers Shuter \u0026amp; Shooter in Paton’s hometown of Pietermaritzburg.\u003c\/strong\u003e  In 1957 Shuter \u0026amp; Shooter would publish a Zulu translation of \u003ci\u003eCry, the Beloved Country\u003c\/i\u003e (\u003ci\u003eLafa Elihle Kakhulu: Ibhalwe\u003c\/i\u003e), as well as a Tsonga translation (\u003ci\u003eRila, Tiko Ro Rhandzeka Swonghasi: Ntsheketo wa Mbuwetelo Exivundzeni\u003c\/i\u003e) in 1998.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSee Paton, Towards the Mountain: an Autobiography (1986).\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSKU: \u003c\/strong\u003e2124504\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Henry Sotheran Limited","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64039925318009,"sku":"2124504","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0045\/2178\/7426\/files\/2124504.jpg?v=1784817405","url":"https:\/\/sotherans.co.uk\/products\/paton-alan-cry-the-beloved-country-a-story-of-comfort-in-desolation","provider":"Sotherans","version":"1.0","type":"link"}