Meanwhile, characters meet an unfortunate death, often violently. The matter of Salome’s inheritance is ignored, passed on, or put off in each section. The four chapters are roughly a decade apart, and each is named after a deceased figure. The whole story is divided into four parts. Damon Galgut told the story of a family torn apart by a broken promise to Salome, the maid. Over the course of four decades, the Swart siblings, Anton (eldest), Astrid (middle), and Amor (youngest), must deal with the repercussions of Apartheid in their own unique ways. After Rachel’s death, Amor reminds her father of this promise, but he doesn’t remember it and pushes her away. The title of the book alludes to the promise made by Manie to his Jewish wife Rachel (overheard by their daughter Amor) that the Black family maid Salome will get to inherit the tiny house she currently lives in.
On a farm near Pretoria in 1986, the Swarts were a typical white family with three children. It’s both a tragicomic family picture and a metaphor for the terrible treatment of Blacks during and after apartheid.
The winner of the Booker Prize 2021, The Promise by Damon Galgut, is a literary classic and an engrossing tale of a white South African family’s downfall and collapse. Confident, deft and quietly powerful, The Promise is literary fiction at its finest. In this story of a diminished family, sharp and tender emotional truths hit home. 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. The narrator’s eye shifts and blinks: moving fluidly between characters, flying into their dreams deliciously lethal in its observation. After years of service, Salome was promised her own house, her own land… yet somehow, as each decade passes, that promise remains unfulfilled. 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. The Swarts are gathering for Ma’s funeral. The Promise charts the crash and burn of a white South African family, living on a farm outside Pretoria.
Setting Place: South Africa, Pretoria (South Africa)īook Summary: The Promise by Damon Galgut Major Characters: Manie, Anton, Astrid, Amor, Salome, Rachel Genre: Historical Fiction, Literary fiction
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