Cry, The Beloved Country

If you haven't read this book - go to a bookstore right now and get it. (it's very possible that I missed the boat on this one, and everyone else has indeed read this. If so, just enjoy the quotation below) Alan Paton's book is beautiful. To give you a small taste, from the 1987 Scribner publication:

"There is calling here, and in the dusk one voice calls to another in some far distant place. If you are a Zulu you can hear what they say, but if you are not, even if you know the language, you would find it hard to know what is being called. Some white men call it magic, but it is no magic, only an art perfected. It is Africa, the beloved country."