Cape Town-based Damon Galgut’s latest novel, The Promise, has been awarded the prestigious Booker Prize for 2021.
The announcement was made last night at a lavish event held in London, United Kingdom. Regarded by literary critics as one of the world’s finest writers, Galgut published his first novel at seventeen and since then his work has been translated into sixteen languages. Two films were made of his book The Quarry. Locally, his previous novel, Arctic Summer, was awarded the Sunday Times Fiction Prize.
He is the fifth African to win the prize, following Nardine Gordimer in 1973, J.M Coetzee in 1983 and 1999, Ben Okri in 1991, and Bernardine Evaristo in 2019.
In his acceptance speech, Damon said: 'I would like to accept this on behalf of all the writers, heard and unheard, of the remarkable continent I am part of...'
Take a look right here - congratulations, Damon!
Take a look at the moment Damon Galgut found out that he had won the #2021BookerPrize! Read more about ‘The Promise’ here: https://t.co/HOh2uZApV4#BookerPrize #ThePromise #DamonGalgut @chattobooks @VINTAGEBooks @penguinrandom pic.twitter.com/BYd17ktG5O
— The Booker Prizes (@TheBookerPrizes) November 3, 2021
The Promise is the story of a family, but also of a country, over forty years. In four parts, each one centered on a family funeral in a different decade, the family fights over a piece of land outside Pretoria. In the background, a different president is in power, and a different spirit hangs over the country. At the core of this mesmerising and at times darkly humorous novel is a deathbed promise by a mother that was never kept – a promise overheard by her young daughter Amor.
