The Promise by Damon Galgut
by Brandon King
The Promise, by Damon Galgut
Winner of the 2021 Booker Prize, The Promise by Damon Galgut charts the crash and burn of a white South African family, living on a farm outside Pretoria.
There is nothing unusual or remarkable about the Swart family, oh no, they resemble the family from the next farm and the one beyond that, just an ordinary bunch of white South Africans, and if you don't believe it then listen to us speak. The many voices of 'The Promise' tell a story in four snapshots, each one centred on a family funeral, each one happening in a different decade.
In the background, a different president is in power, and a different spirit hangs over the country, while in the foreground the family fights over what they call their farm, on a worthless piece of land outside Pretoria. Over large jumps in time, people get older, faces and laws and lives all change, while a brother and sister circle around a promise made long ago, and never kept.
In this story of a diminished family, sharp and tender emotional truths hit home. Confident, deft and quietly powerful, The Promise is literary fiction at its finest.