The Promise

By: Damon Galgut

Narrated by: Peter Noble

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....

©2021 Damon Galgut (P)2021 Penguin Audio

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)

The weight of a promise

This is an outstanding novel. Beautifully written and narrated. Profound and thought-provoking. Highly recommended

Brilliantly Narrated

Very enjoyable listen, great story which has been brilliantly narrated. Thoroughly recommend listening to or reading.

A great novel.

Describes an era in South African history and tell the story in a way the author strips the characters and show them in their ‘naked’ self.

The performance is excellent and makes the story

wow

The book is creative, well written, profound but funny and performed wonderfully.

I grew up in the vaal, and the book felt very real.

Beautiful and emotional

Damon Galgut's powerfully visual writing comes to life with Peter Noble's excellent reading in this emotional story.

Tour de force

The storm at the end a powerful metaphor of the ambiguities and ironies of South Africa today

Disappointing

This story was deeply affected by the reader’s voice. Had I actually read this book, I may have felt differently about it. I have never felt quite so strongly about how much a reader can influence one’s appreciation. My impression is that this is a very masculine reading which seemed at odds with its main character - unless of course you think of SA as the main character. It certainly speaks to me in that way; the very epitome of an apartheid “voice”. It’s sense of authority and it’s lack of emotional engagement, which is in this case, I’m aware, a literary device.
I’m quite a few years older that the author and I’m a NZer. In no way would I claim that NZ is not racist but when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s my parents boycotted SA products in protest against the regime there. NZ as another colonized country, has always been politically (it wasn’t just sports) tied with/to SA and this book did not inform me in the way that it might do for people of other nations/ countries. It did not capture my interest or enthusiasm, but I was curious about why I did not like this book.
One last comment, which I had hoped to hear more about in the interview at the end of the book was that the author introduces “ you” into his narrative and although I was never certain, I think “you” was a different character in each of its appearances. However, I stand to be corrected on this point. Perhaps Damon Galgut really was addressing me, the “reader”.

Overall disappointment

There could have been so much more depth in helping those who don't know too much about South Africa to gain an understanding of the tragedy of Apartheid and the ongoing tragedy that is South Africa today. I found the plot and the characters rather shallow and the narrator irritating and monotonous... disappointed ... I was expecting great things

Listened to the end but couldn't get into it.

I thought the narrator was very good but had a very hard time concentrating on the book. No character is particularly appealing and while I am sure it is very realistic. The story just left me with a bad taste in my mouth and not particularly moved.

Could have been better

The book gives an intersting glimpse of the complexities of South Africa, before and after apartheid, but the characters were far too shallow. Although each is an extreme in its own way, their actions and motives are very vague. I found it hard to attach to either of them.