Damon Galgut wins the Booker Prize for 'The Promise'

Damon Galgut, a South African dramatist and writer, received the 2021 Booker Prize for "The Promise," his third nominated novel that follows a family in his hometown from the late apartheid regime through Jacob Zuma's administration.

Damon Galgut, the South African author, is awarded the Booker Prize in 2021. Galgut received the Booker Prize for his work 'The Promise'. In 2003 and 2010, he was nominated for the award. However, he didn't win the award either time.

"The Promise" was chosen over five other novels, three of which were written by Americans: Richard Powers' "Bewilderment," about an astrobiologist trying to care for his neurodivergent son; Patricia Lockwood's social media-infused novel "No One is Talking About This," and Maggie Shipstead's aviator saga "Great Circle." Other contenders were Sri Lankan novelist Anuk Arudpragasam's post-war storey "A Passage North" and British/Somali writer Nadifa Mohamed's "The Fortune Men," about a Somali man wrongfully accused of murder in 1950s Wales.The Promise is Galgut's first novel in seven years. The book marks the transition from apartheid between 1948 and the early '90s to what is now South Africa.

Galgutt expressed his gratitude for the award and said he was humbled by it. Galgat went on to say that getting here took him a long time. According to Galgate, 2021 will be an excellent year for African literature. Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah received the Nobel Prize for Literature in October.