The Promise

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Damon Galgut: The Promise (2021, Chatto & Windus)

hardcover

Published June 17, 2021 by Chatto & Windus.

ISBN:
978-1-78474-406-9
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4 stars (7 reviews)

2 editions

Perfect Book for a bookclub discussion

5 stars

As one participant in yesterday's discussion put it - the story of a crumbling family, in a crumbling society, The Promise tells the tale, in particular, of three siblings, Anton, Astrid and Amor, their parents and extended family, against the backdrop of the ending of apartheid in South Africa.

From a white farming family, the three sibling's story is told in a series of deaths and the ramifications of each of those on them, and a long-standing promise to the black maid and lifelong companion of them all - Salome. Starting with the death of their mother, and her deathbed return to her Jewish faith, the ructions that this, and the promise she extracts from her husband to give Salome the house and land that she lives on (pointed echo here with the current Australian Voice discussions), start out a story that then moves onwards in time, in a meandering …