Galgut’s ninth novel traces members of the Swart family - the word is Afrikaans for black - haunted by an unkept promise to give their Black maid, Salome, her own house. Historian Maya Jasanoff, who chaired the judging panel, said “The Promise” was a profound, forceful and succinct book that “combines an extraordinary story, rich themes - the history of the last 40 years in South Africa - in an incredibly well-wrought package.” You could read that as a warning or a portrait, I don’t know, but South Africa has seen better days.”

“I had no agenda in describing it that way, but things are not great with us right now. “I think the portrait it paints of modern South Africa is not a happy one,” he said. “I didn’t plan for the overall trajectory of the book to be a downward one,” he said - though that’s how it turned out. His novel paints a troubling picture of modern-day South Africa, though Galgut said he did not set out to be negative. “Please keep listening to us - more to come,” Galgut added. Galgut said he was accepting the prize “on behalf of all the stories told and untold, the writers heard and unheard, from the remarkable continent that I’m part of.” He noted that this year’s Nobel literature laureate, Zanzibar-born writer Abdulrazak Gurnah, was also African. Galgut took the prize on his third time as a finalist, for a book the judges called a “tour de force.” He was previously shortlisted for “The Good Doctor” in 2003 and “In a Strange Room” in 2010, but lost both times.ĭespite his status as favorite, Galgut said he was “stunned” to win. Galgut had been British bookmakers’ runaway favorite to win the 50,000-pound ($69,000) prize with his story of a troubled Afrikaner family and its broken promise to a Black employee - a tale that reflects bigger themes in South Africa’s transition from apartheid. LONDON (AP) - South African writer Damon Galgut won the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction on Wednesday with “The Promise,” a novel about one white family’s reckoning with South Africa’s racist history.

The promise by damon galgut