The Promise

This book is not purchasable in your country. Please select another book.

Listen to a sample

What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

** WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021 **


This audiobook includes bonus content of Damon Galgut in conversation with Ted Hodgkinson, Head of Literature and Spoken Word at the Southbank Centre.


There is nothing unusual or remarkable about the Swart family, oh no, they resemble the family from the next farm and the one beyond that, just an ordinary bunch of white South Africans, and if you don't believe it then listen to us speak ...

The many voices of The Promise tell a story in four snapshots, each one centered on a family funeral, each one happening in a different decade. In the background, a different president is in power, and a different spirit hangs over the country, while in the foreground the family fights over what they call their farm, on a worthless piece of land outside Pretoria.

Over large jumps in time, people get older, faces and laws and lives all change, while a brother and sister circle around a promise made long ago, and never kept ...

'Astonishing' Colm Tóibín

'Gorgeous and pleasurable' Tessa Hadley


'The most important book of the last ten years' Edmund White


© Damon Galgut 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

  • A superb novel; a nuanced, sad, hilarious portrait of a family and a country

    PAULA HAWKINS
  • This story was so powerful, the writing so strong and supple… What an achievement

    CLARE CHAMBERS
  • A moving, brilliantly told family epic . . . darkly comic . . . phenomenally good

    ELIZABETH DAY
  • Layered, clever…with a gripping story

    Daily Mail, Books of the Year
  • A brilliant book told over four decades and four funerals . . . These are characters dancing on the edge of ruin . . . Intoxicating

    ANNA HOPE

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to get tailored content recommendations, product updates and info on new releases. Your data is your own: we commit to protect your data and respect your privacy.