![]() ![]() This means every time you pick it up it takes a while to get back into and it’s easiest to read each of the four parts (c.70 pages) in one go. Secondly, there are no scenes or chapters – it’s all one continuous stream of consciousness so there aren’t natural breaks. Firstly, there are no speechmarks so it takes ages to work out if someone’s talking (I like the theme of the demarcation between speech and thought but I also like to be practical). It’s very well-written with lots of allegory and atmosphere but I didn’t enjoy the reading experience. RATING: Although this novel won the 2021 Booker Prize, it’s three and a half stars from me. With no speechmarks and a rapidly moving narrator who can enter the minds of the characters, this novel is also about Amor’s siblings, growing up and the promise of youth. The rest of the novel spans forty years – through the end of Apartheid, truth and reconciliation and the AIDS epidemic – as Amor seeks to fulfil the promise. It opens with the youngest daughter, Amor, who overhears her father promise to give their black maid, Salome, a house. ![]() ![]() THE PLOT: ‘The Promise’ by Damon Galgut is a literary novel about a white South-African family. ![]()
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