The Promise

The Promise by Galgut, Damon. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781784744069.

A masterpiece of a family in crisis from twice Booker-shortlisted author Damon Galgut Astonishing Colm Tóibín A literary masterpiece Sarah Hall The Promise charts the crash and burn of a white South African family, living on a farm outside Pretoria. The Swarts are gathering for Mas 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 house, her own land... yet somehow, as each decade passes, that promise remains unfulfilled. The narrators 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 novels title. 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. Gorgeous and pleasurable Tessa Hadley The most important book of the last ten years Edmund White Simply: you must read it Claire Messud