The Promise cover art

The Promise

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE

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The Promise

Written by: Damon Galgut
Narrated by: Peter Noble
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Buy Now for ₹546.23

Buy Now for ₹546.23

Brought to you by Penguin.

** WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021 **


This audiobook includes bonus content of Damon Galgut in conversation with Ted Hodgkinson, Head of Literature and Spoken Word at the Southbank Centre.


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 centered 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 ...

'Astonishing' Colm Tóibín

'Gorgeous and pleasurable' Tessa Hadley


'The most important book of the last ten years' Edmund White


© Damon Galgut 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction World Literature
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Critic Reviews

A superb novel; a nuanced, sad, hilarious portrait of a family and a country (PAULA HAWKINS)
This story was so powerful, the writing so strong and supple... What an achievement (CLARE CHAMBERS)
A moving, brilliantly told family epic . . . darkly comic . . . phenomenally good (ELIZABETH DAY)
Layered, clever...with a gripping story (CLAIRE FULLER)
A brilliant book told over four decades and four funerals . . . These are characters dancing on the edge of ruin . . . Intoxicating (ANNA HOPE)
Astonishing . . . about fate and loss, about three siblings and land, a promise made a broken (COLM TOIBIN)
A remarkable tale of four generations of one South African family and of the country itself... No wonder it won the Booker
Vivid and suggestive, moving and often very funny
Outstanding . . . Gripping . . . There is also plenty of unexpected comedy
Brilliant... Rarely have I had such a strong sense, while reading a novel, that I myself was there, in the room with the characters
All stars
Most relevant
i wish to finish the book., .....a better narration could help. narration sounds forceful, not spontaneous

story might be good...but I left half the way.

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