New Releases by Alan Paton

Instrument of Peace: Meditations on the Prayer of Saint Francis is a series of reflections by Alan Paton based on the beloved prayer of the mystic Italian friar.

The book explains how hadiths originated and developed in the early years and centuries of Islam and their part in the development of Islamic law.A hadith is a report of a statement or action of the Prophet Muhammad. They provide the Sunna of the Prophet; his example and guidance on how to behave. This information is of the utmost importance to Muslims because the Quran calls upon Muslims to follow the example and instructions of the Prophet. The Quran itself provides relatively little detail on legal and behavioural matters and hadiths became the foundation and source of Islamic law alongside the Quran. The two most famous hadith collections, Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, are regarded as genuine Islamic sacred books by Sunni Muslims.At the beginning hadiths were transmitted orally and were also fabricated for sectarian and religious reasons. The book explains what early Islamic hadith scholars did to determine hadith authenticity and summarises hadith research by modern Western scholars.It is for readers who want more than an overview; who want some depth on key topics, but don't have the time to do all the reading. It covers all important aspects of the subject including complex but vital matters professional scholars cover and popular works often ignore and turns complicated arguments into accessible text for non-specialists and students.

La belleza de la tierra sudafricana llena toda esta novela y se convierte en una de sus principales protagonistas. Ambientada en los años previos a la instauración del apartheid, el autor nos narra el destino de dos padres, un pastor negro anglicano y un terrateniente blanco, que se cruza a causa de un trágico suceso. El anciano Kumalo se ve impelido a dejar su pequeña iglesia local en las colinas para adentrase en la confusa y tensa Johannesburgo de finales de los 1940 en busca de su hijo Absalom... Un relato que llega directamente al corazón y que inspira una fe renovada en la dignidad del hombre. Un auténtico clásico, apasionadamente africano, intemporal y universal, y sobre todo una historia sobre la abnegación de un padre. "Es la novela más influyente de cuantas se han escrito en Sudáfrica y jugó un gran papel en la toma de conciencia popular... Hizo comprender que el apartheid no era simplemente una ignominia abstracta, sino una distorsión de las relaciones humanas, del propio espíritu humano". Nadine Gordimer, premio Nobel sudafricana

From the author of Cry, The Beloved Country comes a powerful novel of terror and remorse “written in exquisitely balanced prose” (Chicago Sun-Times) about a white policeman who has an affair with a native girl in South Africa. After violating his country’s ironclad law governing relationships between the races, a young white South African police lieutenant must struggle alone against the censure of an inflexible society, his family, and himself.

A classic collection of 20 short stories, the core of which is formed by Alan Paton's famous first volume of short stories Debbie Go Home (1961), published in the US as Tales from a Troubled Land. The rest of the stories are taken from other sources, 10 of them from Paton's last volume, Knocking on the Door (1975). The collection is prefaced by Paton's lively interview of himself. c2008.

Een zwarte dominee in het door apartheid beheerste Zuid-Afrika van 1946 reist naar Johannesburg om zijn zuster en zoon terug te vinden..

In 1956, seven amateur adventurers set off from Natal (South Africa) in a decrepit five-ton truck named "Kalahari Polka," on "the craziest expedition ever to enter the unknown." The goal was to make archaeological history by locating a mythical Lost City in a remote range of mountains deep in the Kalahari Desert. Included in the party was Alan Paton, acclaimed author of Cry, the Beloved Country, chairman of the newly-formed South African Liberal Party, and a leading political voice of his time. Lost City of the Kalahari is Paton's hitherto unpublished account of the odd adventure. Recounted with dry, self-deprecating wit and supplemented by hand-drawn maps, provisions lists, photographs, 8mm film stills, and other fascinating memorabilia from the period, this entertaining travelogue brings to life the quirky cast of characters, rough discomforts of the journey, tedium of unvarying landscape, vast desert vistas, and encounters with wild Bushmen and other Kalahari people. And through it all, emerges Paton's own deep love for the austere landscape that "one can never have too much of because it is like breathing."

Alan Paton's novel tells the story of the South African people and their struggles in the wake of colonial rule.

For millions of readers worldwide, Alan Paton's books have vividly described life in contemporary South Africa. Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful revolves around the everyday experiences of a group of men and women whose lives reflect the human costs of maintaining a racially divided society. Writing at the peak of his powers, Paton delivers a masterpiece.

The first volume of Paton's autobiography, Towards the mountain was published in 1980. This second volume, completed before his death on April 12, 1988, begins in 1948 and ends in 1968. It covers the period in which all of his writings were published, and covers as well his part in founding and nurturing the Liberal Party of South Africa, of which he became National Chairman. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Ten stories dealing with social injustice in South Africa.