Tales from a Troubled Land - Softcover

Paton, Alan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0684825848 ISBN 13: 9780684825847

Publisher: Scribner, 1996

Synopsis

With a mixture of compassion and despair, this collection of ten short stories by the distinguished author of 'Cry, the Beloved Country' speaks eloquently yet incisively of the injustices of the author's native land, South Africa.

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About the Author

Alan Paton, a native son of South Africa, was born in Pietermaritzburg, in the province of Natal, in 1903. Paton's initial career was spent teaching in schools for the sons of rich, white South Africans, But at thirty, he suffered a severe attack of enteric fever, and in the time he had to reflect upon his life, he decided that he did not want to spend his life teaching the sons of the rich. He got a job as principal of Diepkloof Reformatory, a huge prison school for delinquent black boys, on the edge of Johannesburg. He worked at Diepkloof for ten years, and at the end of it Paton felt so strongly that he needed a change, that he sold his life insurance policies to finance a prison-study trip that took him to Scandinavia, England, and the United States. It was during this time that he unexpectedly wrote his first published novel, Cry, the Beloved Country. It stands as the single most important novel in South African literature. Alan Paton died in 1988 in South Africa.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0684825848
• ISBN 13: 9780684825847
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 128