Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful Ah, But Your Land is Beautiful is the third novel of Alan Paton, the South African author who is best known for writing "Cry, the Beloved Country". "Ah, but Your Land is Beautiful" is an anti-apartheid novel, in a similar vein to "Cry, the Beloved Country". It is a fictional reworking of Paton's own years working as a political activist and of the experience he gained working as the president of the Liberal Party of South Africa. In the foreword, Paton describes how the book contains both real and fictitious characters, but that two
Cry, the Beloved Country frequent use of literary and linguistic devices such as microcosms, intercalary chapters and dashes instead of quotation marks for dialogue to indicate the start of speech acts to portray the devastating conditions in South Africa. The novel is filled with Biblical references and allusions. The most evident are the names Paton gives to the characters. Absalom, the son of Stephen Kumalo, is named for the son of King David, who rose against his father in rebellion. Also, in the New Testament Book of Acts, Saint Stephen was a martyr who died rather than give up his beliefs. The Gospel of