SUBTLE SUBTEXT

The Promise, which won the 2021 Booker Prize, encourages the reader to make a multi-layered interpretation

- R. KICHENAMOURTY

With Damon Galgut be-ing awarded the Book-er Prize on November 3, Africa is once again the focus of international literary attention. Abdulrazak Gurnah had won the 2021 Nobel Prize for his novels highlighting the problems in his East African homeland, Tanzania. But, South Africa, which went through the harrowing experience of apartheid, differs vastly from East Africa. And Galgut, whose two previous novels—The Good Doctor and In a Strange Room—were short-listed for the Booker, has brilliantly evoked the complex problems of his country in The Promise.

The story, set in Pretoria, begins in 1986— when apartheid was slowly drifting towards an end. But the residual effects of the abhorred system are still felt in the novel. The eponymous promise occurs on page number 19:

“Do you promise me, Manie?”

Holding on to him, skeleton hands grabbing, like in a horror film.

“Ja, I’ll do it.”

“Because I really want her to have something. After everything she’s done.”

“I understand,” he says.

“Promise me you’ll do it. Say the words.”

“I promise,” Pa says, choked-sounding.

The Promise

By Damon Galgut

Published by Chatto & Windus