Book Review: The Promise

[Eric]

2021 Booker Prize winner. Set in South Africa around the end of apartheid, the novel revolves around Afrikaner siblings coming of age during the countries transition, each with different angst, expectations and sacrifices. Death and decay hang over the novel, shaping each chapter. However, "The Promise" is more than the assurance the father gives the mother on her death bed; what is owed to each generation and to each other.