What is this book about?
The Promise follows the Swarts, a white South African family whose farm lies outside Pretoria. At the centre of their disagreements is a commitment made to Salome, the Black woman who has worked for them for many years: she is to receive a house and land of her own. As the decades pass, that commitment remains unresolved.
Damon Galgut organises the novel around four family funerals, using the intervals between them to show changes in individual lives and in the country around them. Shifts in narrative perspective connect private relationships with questions of ownership, responsibility and justice. Published in 2021, the novel won the Booker Prize in the same year.
Source: The Booker Prizes: book overview, author and judges’ commentary
Who would enjoy this book?
Readers interested in South African fiction, family histories and questions about promises and responsibility.
How difficult is it to read?
Changing perspectives and large gaps between the four funeral episodes require attention to shifts in voice and time.
Themes
Book-club discussion
Suggested questions based on the book’s premise and form.
- What is the relationship between a private promise and a public history of inequality?
- How do the gaps between the funerals shape our understanding of the family?
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