We are delighted to announce that Damon Galgut’s masterful novel, The Promise, has won the 2021 Booker Prize!
Praise for The Promise has been extraordinary since its publication.
Booker prize judge, Chigozie Obioma says, “[The Promise] is an unusual narrative style that balances Faulknerian exuberance with Nabokovian precision, pushes boundaries, and is a testament to the flourishing of the novel in the 21st century.”
The announcement was made on November 3rd, 2021 by Maya Jasanoff, chair of the 2021 judges, in a ceremony that was broadcast live to a global audience of millions by the BBC.
The Promise is set in South Africa during the country’s transition out of apartheid, explores the interconnected relationships between the members of a diminishing white family through the sequential lens of four funerals. The Promise is Galgut’s ninth novel and first in seven years; his debut was published when he was just seventeen.
The Promise is available in print, e-book, and audio. Get your copy today!
Watch a short film adaptation of The Promise, directed by Christine Ubochi and starring David Jonsson, created for the Booker Prize in partnership with the BBC and Rural Media.
