Although Salome, and her rightful inheritance, are the principal focus of the story, the jumping narrative voice always seems to skip her over. This purposeful ignorance underpins Galgut’s narrative choices in the novel.

See also Taglines Synopsis Plot Keywords Parents Guide Elizabeth Day speaks to Damon Galgut about his new novel, The Promise. Be the first to contribute Just click the 'Edit page' button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Synopsis submission guide. “A lot of white South Africans just don’t care to ask, or aren’t interested enough to ask.” Synopsis It looks like we dont have a Synopsis for this title yet. I mean, so close that sometimes these are people who’ve worked for your family for years,” he says. “The white South African psyche is not very perceptive about Black citizens that are really, really close to hand. Per Galgut, the central focus of The Promise is “the white South African psyche,” or the mentality used to justify the subjugation of Black South Africans for more than three centuries, which can be seen in the dynamic between the Swarts family and Salome. “But it was always heartening to me that people knew this was going to be a process, not just a flip of the switch.” “You cannot transform the economic situation that apartheid bequeathed to us overnight,” he says. The youngest Swart sibling, Amor, resides at a boarding school, and the eldest. The overall bribery rate reported by people using public services was 18% in 2019, up from 7% in 2015.ĭespite the rampant corruption and a “sense of exhaustion,” Galgut sees glimmers of hope. Part 1, Ma, revolves around the 1986 death of the Swart matriarch, Rachel. According to Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer, 64% of 1,840 citizens surveyed in 2018 thought corruption had increased in the previous 12 months.

Synopsis of the promise galgut novel