Contemporary literature

Deeply rooted in the South African reality of the past three decades, the last year’s Booker Prize winner, The Promise by Damon Galgut, is a story about an agricultural family, the Swarts, whose destiny unfolds to the rhythm of four consecutive funerals, political changes and a constantly returning question of an unkept promise once made by seriously ill Manie to her black servant Salome. At death’s door, she wishes for the decrepit tiny cottage situated on the other side of the rural propert...