The Promise (winner Of The Booker Prize 2021)

By (author) Galgut, Damon
Description

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021
One family. One promise. One chance to tell a new story.

**AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME**

''A moving, brilliantly told family epic'' Elizabeth Day

''Superb'' Paula Hawkins

''Gripping'' Daily Mail

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
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On a farm outside Pretoria, the Swarts are gathering for Ma''s funeral. The younger generation, Anton and Amor, detest everything the family stand for - not least their treatment of the Black woman who has worked for them her whole life. Salome was to be given her own house, her own land...yet somehow, that vow is carefully ignored.

As each decade passes, and the family assemble again, one question hovers over them. Can you ever escape the repercussions of a broken promise?
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''A tour de force... A spectacular demonstration of how the novel can make us see and think afresh'' Booker Judges, 2021

''So powerful'' Clare Chambers

''Astonishing'' Colm Tóibín

''Bursting with life'' The Times

''Utterly compelling'' Patrick Gale

Shortlisted for the 2022 Rathbones Folio Prize

** A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, DAILY TELEGRAPH, i AND NEW STATESMAN **

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A superb novel; a nuanced, sad, hilarious portrait of a family and a country
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This story was so powerful, the writing so strong and supple... What an achievement
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A moving, brilliantly told family epic . . . darkly comic . . . phenomenally good
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Layered, clever...with a gripping story
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A brilliant book told over four decades and four funerals . . . These are characters dancing on the edge of ruin . . . Intoxicating
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Astonishing . . . about fate and loss, about three siblings and land, a promise made a broken
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A remarkable tale of four generations of one South African family and of the country itself... No wonder it won the Booker
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Vivid and suggestive, moving and often very funny
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Outstanding . . . Gripping . . . There is also plenty of unexpected comedy
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Brilliant... Rarely have I had such a strong sense, while reading a novel, that I myself was there, in the room with the characters
Biographical note
DAMON GALGUT is the author of nine novels. He won the Booker Prize 2021 for The Promise, having been shortlisted for the prize twice before (The Good Doctor and In A Strange Room). He lives and works in Cape Town.