The Promise

By Damon Galgut

Categories: Literature & Fiction

The Promise is a novel by South African writer Damon Galgut that won the 2021 Booker Prize. It follows the Swart family, white South Africans living on a farm outside Pretoria, across four decades. The book is built around four funerals. At the first, in 1986, the family's dying mother extracts a promise that their Black domestic worker, Salome, will be given the house she lives in. The promise goes unkept for decades, as the novel traces the family's decline alongside South Africa's history after apartheid.

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• Sarah Jessica Parker: “I offer an early 2026 round up. ... Sorry a bit about the length of the post but I didn't want to short shrift any of the authors. Hope some of or all of the books find their way to your hands.”