South African author Damon Galgut wins Booker Prize

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• South African playwright and novelist, Damon Galgut has won the 2021 Booker Prize for “The Promise”, his third shortlisted novel which chronicles a family in his homeland from the late apartheid era through to Jacob Zuma’s presidency.
• Spanning several decades, the book shows the family’s growing disintegration as the country emerges into democracy.
• Galgut took the prize on his third time as a finalist, for a book the judges called a “tour de force.” He was previously shortlisted for “The Good Doctor” in 2003 and “In a Strange Room” in 2010 but lost both times.