The Promise Damon Galgut

A masterpiece of a family in crisis from twice Booker-shortlisted author Damon Galgut

Discover the powerful prizewinning story of a family in crisis.

A taut and menacing novel that charts the crash and burn of an Afrikaans family, the Swarts, living on a farm outside Pretoria. Punctuated by funerals that bring the ever-diminishing family together, each of the four parts opens with a death and a new decade.

The Swarts are gathering for Ma's funeral. The younger generation, Anton and Amor, detest everything the family stand for - not least the failed promise to the Black woman who has worked for them her whole life. 

After years of service, Salome was promised her own home, her own land.... yet somehow, as each decade passes, that promise remains unfulfilled. 

The narrator's eye shifts and blinks: moving fluidly between characters, flying into their dreams; deliciously lethal in its observation. And as the country moves from old deep divisions to its new so-called fairer society, the lost promise of more than just one family hovers behind the novel's title. 

Product Details

• Published:            12 April 2022
• ISBN:                    9781529113877
• Imprint:               Chatto & Windus
• Format:               Paperback
• Pages:                 304
• RRP:                    $26.00