South African Damon Galgut wins Booker Prize for The Promise

When South African writer Damon Galgut learnt that his novel, The Promise, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, he was filled with anxiety.

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LONDON • When South African writer Damon Galgut learnt that his novel, The Promise, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, he was filled with anxiety.

He had been shortlisted twice before – in 2003 and 2010 – and, both times, the stress of the nominations “probably shaved a few years off my life”, he said.

This year was different. On Wednesday, the Booker judges pronounced Galgut the winner, praising his novel for its “unusual narrative style that balances Faulknerian exuberance with Nabokovian precision, pushes boundaries, and is a testament to the flourishing of the novel in the 21st century”.