Slight ennui with it being yet another historical novel.Įnjoyed the portrayal of the family members - all damaged and tormented. Good structure with each character’s story/viewpoint skilfully woven together. Listening to the BBC Sounds/Book at Bedtime version broadcast over 10x15 minute abridged sections was very helpful and enjoyable.Įnjoyed the humour and some of the eccentricities of some of the obnoxious characters in the family. Told in the present tense and again no speech marks! Narrator breaks the 4th wall and addresses the reader directly at times.įound the writing style tricky at first - whose viewpoint were we hearing - sometimes the narrator, sometimes inside two different character’s heads in the same passage.

Was Amor really so perfect or just another in this family suffering from trauma? A summary of comments and views :-Įnjoyed it enormously - eye opening, detailed portrayal of a decaying regime as epitomised by one white South African Afrikaans family over 4 decades- their arrogance, hypocrisy,complexities of religion and tradition, and the subtleties of oppression. Tweetġ4 of us gathered (and 3 sent in reviews/comments and scores) to discuss our April 2022 reads which included The Promise. Confident, deft and quietly powerful, The Promise is literary fiction at its finest.

In this story of a diminished family, sharp and tender emotional truths hit home. And as the country moves from old deep divisions to its new so-called fairer society, the lost promise of more than just one family hovers behind the novel’s title. The narrator’s eye shifts and blinks: moving fluidly between characters, flying into their dreams deliciously lethal in its observation. After years of service, Salome was promised her own house, her own land… yet somehow, as each decade passes, that promise remains unfulfilled. The younger generation, Anton and Amor, detest everything the family stand for - not least the failed promise to the Black woman who has worked for them her whole life. The Swarts are gathering for Ma’s funeral. The Promise charts the crash and burn of a white South African family, living on a farm outside Pretoria. Buy this book from to support The Reading Agency and local bookshops at no additional cost to you.

The promise by galgut