This year's winner of Booker, which is considered one of the most respected literary awards in the world, has been announced. South African author Damon Galgut has been awarded the 2021 Booker Prize for his novel The Promise. The award was presented to the author at the ceremony held in London. Maya Jasanoff, chair of the Jury for the Booker Prize, commented on The Promise: “A work that brings together an outstanding story, rich subject matter and South Africa's last 40 years. He combined great ideas with great storytelling.”
The South African novelist, who wrote his first novel at the age of 17, won the 2015 Sunday Times Fiction Award for his eighth book, Arctic Summer. The author, who made it to the finals of the Booker Prize with his book The Good Doctor in 2003 and with his book Strange Room in 2010, won the award this time with his new novel The Promise. The Promise tells the story of a South African family from the apartheid era to the present. The book is about a series of funeral stories set in Pretoria, where Galgut grew up.
