"Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful" shows no slackening of either [Paton's] hope or his realism. This novel is as vigorously and as exquisitely written as anything he has produced. It has the eloquence, the special commingling of sweetness and anger, the Orwellian force and lucidity, familiar to readers of "Too Late the Phalarope" … and several other volumes since. Its tone is quietly anguished. Its classical appeal is based on a direct and simple confidence that the facts of his country's moral disaster will move all men and women, all at once, in the same direction. (p. 7)

The cumulative anecdotal force of "Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful" is difficult to convey. Considering its abundant violence, the passion of its advocacy, and the hatred it matter-of-factly reports, the book is remarkably gentle….

Individual human dilemmas are never swallowed up or diminished by the overarching political context of the...