Writing style
Lyrical · Poetic · Spare
Apple BooksCry, the Beloved Country
Literary fiction · Tragedy
- First published
- 1948
- Print length
- 316 pagesScribner Paperback Fiction, 1987
Description
Stephen Kumalo, a Zulu priest in a depleted rural village, travels to Johannesburg to help his sister and find the son who has stopped writing home. The city reveals families fractured by migration, poverty, addiction, and racial exploitation. After locating his sister, Kumalo learns that his son has been arrested in connection with the killing of Arthur Jarvis, a white engineer who advocated for Indigenous rights. Arthur's father, James Jarvis, also comes to Johannesburg and begins discovering convictions his son had never shared with him directly. Set before apartheid became law, the novel brings two grieving fathers into the same national crisis, linking intimate loss with the damaged land and the unequal society both men inhabit.
Reading profile
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Pace
Measured
Tone
Earnest · Hopeful · Melancholic · Reflective
Structure
Braided · Linear
Focus
Character · Ideas · Relationships
Emotional intensity
5 / 5
Reading complexity
1–5 · higher means more demanding- Writing
- 3 / 5
- Ideas
- 3 / 5
- Structure
- 3 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 2 / 5
Themes
Book details
For the print edition listed above.
- Publisher
- Scribner Paperback Fiction
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9780684818948
Keep your books and notes in Collected for iPhone.
Apple Books is a service mark of Apple Inc. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.