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|  | | Alan Paton
South African author and activist Alan Paton once reflected, "Who knows why we live, and struggle, and die? Wise men write many books, in words too hard to understand. But this, the purpose of our lives, the end of all our struggle, is beyond all human wisdom." However, the wisdom of his beloved novel Cry, the Beloved Country made his one of South Africa's most resounding voices.
 Read the biography
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Fact File
| Name:
Alan Paton
Also Known As:
Alan Stewart Patton
Date of Birth:
January 11, 1903
Place of Birth:
Pietermaritzburg, Natal, South Africa
Date of Death:
April 12, 1988
| | Place of Death:
Durban, Natal, South Africa
Education:
Maritzburg College, 1918; B.S., Natal University College, 1924
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Oprah Has Chosen
| ![Book Cover Image. Title:
Cry, the Beloved Country, Author:
Alan Paton.]()
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| | Cry, the Beloved Country
by
Alan Paton
The second selection in Oprah's rejuvenated Book Club is the profoundly compassionate story of Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, Cry, the Beloved Country takes place in the troubled and changing South Africa of the 1940s. It established Paton as a bestselling author in 1948 and, more significantly, alerted the world to the conditions of life for nonwhites in South Africa.
Check out our Reading Group Guide
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Moving Pictures
| Cry, the Beloved Country was adapted for the silver screen twice: once in 1951, featuring Sidney Poitier, and again in 1995 for the epic version starring James Earl Jones. The second production was the first major motion picture produced in South Africa after Nelson Mandela's election ended minority white rule.
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Paton's Sophomore Success
| Stories from Social Services
| ![Book Cover Image. Title:
Too Late the Phalarope, Author:
Alan Paton.]()
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| | Too Late the Phalarope
by
Alan Paton
Like its famous predecessor, Cry, the Beloved Country, Paton's second novel uses the lives of ordinary people to symbolize the devastation of South African apartheid. The story of a white policeman who has an affair with a black woman, the novel builds to a tragic conclusion that reflects the brutal intolerance of its cultural setting.
| | ![Book Cover Image. Title:
Tales from a Troubled Land, Author:
Alan Paton.]()
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| | Tales from a Troubled Land
by
Alan Paton
Before he became a writer, Paton's first career was in the social service field, as the tireless director of a reformatory for African boys. The ten short stories in Tales from a Troubled Land reflect the trials and triumphs Paton experienced during this influential time in his life, with a poignant mixture of despair and hope.
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