A review by missyjohnson
The Promise by Damon Galgut

3.0

Book club choice for Booker Prize (2021). The Swart family own a farm in South Africa. The story begins as apartheid is ending. Rachel, the mom of Anton, Astrid and Amor and wife to Manie has died. Before Rachel dies, she has Manie promise to give a house on the property to Salome, the housekeeper and nanny of all three children lives in. Manie makes the promise that Amor hears. At this time, blacks cannot own property. The story extends over the next 30 years the the promise is not fulfilled for one reason or another. This is distressing to Amor. Each family member has his or her own issues and the family is dysfunctional. The author did not use quotation marks for any dialogue and in some cases it is a bit confusing. The “narrator” is not named and could be any of the characters in the book or none. There is some stream of consciousness that sometimes adds to the confusion. So glad that we did this for book club as this one deserves discussion.