The Promise (Winner of the 2021 Booker Prize)

Winner of the 2021 Booker Prize, The Promise chronicles the gradual decline of the Swarts, a white South African farming family, over four turbulent decades. The narrative centers on a broken promise made to Salome, their loyal Black domestic worker, who was promised ownership of the small house and land she lives on. Framed around four family funerals spanning from the end of the Apartheid era into the country's modern democracy, the novel exposes internal conflicts, generational trauma, and political shift while reflecting South Africa’s painful journey toward justice.