Damon Galgut

Premio Booker 2021XXIV Premi Llibreter Altres Literatures 2023Los Swart son una familia blanca que vive desde hace generaciones en una granja en las afueras de Pretoria, en Sudáfrica. Tras la muerte de la madre, se reúnen todos para el funeral en la casa familiar. Amor y Anton, dos de sus hijos, rechazan lo que la familia representa y no olvidan la promesa que su padre hizo a su madre poco antes de morir: que Salome, la mujer negra que lleva trabajando toda la vida para ellos y que la cuidó en sus últimos días, podría quedarse con la pequeña casa en la que siempre ha vivido. Pero el tiempo va pasando y la promesa no se cumple.La narración sigue los pasos de los Swart a lo largo de más de tres décadas; a través de la minuciosa exploración de los miembros de la familia y sus conflictos, Galgut nos habla también de los cambios políticos y sociales del país tras el fin de la segregación racial.La promesa, una originalísima y conmovedora novela ganadora del premio Booker 2021, está considerada como una de las grandes obras literarias en inglés de la última década.

WINNER OF THE COMMONWEALTH WRITERS PRIZE & Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize A powerful, taut and intense tale of a friendship overshadowed by betrayal, set against the tawdry hopes and disappointments of a post-apartheid South Africa. When Laurence Waters arrives at his new post at a deserted rural hospital, staff physician Frank Eloff is instantly suspicious. Laurence is everything Frank is not-young, optimistic, and full of big ideas. The whole town is beset with new arrivals and the return of old faces. Frank reestablishes a liaison with a woman, one that will have unexpected consequences. A self-made dictator from apartheid days is rumored to be active in cross-border smuggling, and a group of soldiers has moved in to track him, led by a man from Franks own dark past. Laurence sees only possibilities-but in a world where the past is demanding restitution from the present, his ill-starred idealism cannot last.

In this literary tour de force, twice Booker shortlisted novelist Damon Galgut evokes the life and work of EM Forster, his travels to India, and the freedom and inspiration he found there. In 1912, the SS Birmingham approaches India. On board is Morgan Forster, novelist and man of letters, who is embarking on a journey of discovery. As Morgan stands on deck, the promise of a strange new future begins to take shape before his eyes. The seeds of a story start to gather at the corner of his mind: a sense of impending menace, lust in close confines, under a hot, empty sky. It will be another twelve years, and a second time spent in India, before A Passage to India, EM Forster's great work of literature, is published. During these years, Morgan will come to a profound understanding of himself as a man, and of the infinite subtleties and complexity of human nature, bringing these great insights to bear in his remarkable novel. At once an exploration of the life and times of one of Britain's finest novelists, his struggle to find a way of living and being, and a stunningly vivid evocation of the mysterious alchemy of the creative process, Arctic Summer is a literary masterpiece, by one of the finest writers of his generation.

"The Impostor" is simply the finest work of fiction he has ever written: a gripping, claustrophobic novel of guilty secrets, obsession and self-reinvention on the African Savannah. When Adam moves into an abandoned house on the dusty edge of town, he is hoping to recover from the loss of his job and his home in the city. But when he meets Canning - a shadowy figure from his childhood - and Canning's enigmatic and beautiful wife, a sinister new chapter in his life begins. Canning has inherited a vast fortune and built for himself a giant folly in the veld, a magical place of fantasy and dreams that seduces Adam and transforms him absolutely, violently - and perhaps forever.Damon Galgut's magnificent new novel evokes a hot and cruel and claustrophobic world, in which sex and death are never far from the surface. It is his most powerful and unforgettable novel yet.

A young man takes three journeys, through Greece, India and Africa. He travels lightly, simply. To those who travel with him and those whom he meets on the way - including a handsome, enigmatic stranger, a group of careless backpackers and a woman on the edge - he is the Follower, the Lover and the Guardian. Yet, despite the man's best intentions, each journey ends in disaster. Together, these three journeys will change his whole life. A novel of longing and thwarted desire, rage and compassion, "In a Strange Room" is the hauntingly beautiful evocation of one man's search for love, and a place to call home.

Two physicians in South Africa--Frank is aging, despairing; Laurence is young and idealistic--struggle to keep things going in a ludicrously underequipped hospital. The story is narrated by Frank, a classic "unreliable narrator," whose recounting of events reveals not only Laurence's mistakes but, inadvertently, his own. THE GOOD DOCTOR was shortlisted for the 2003 Booker Prize.

This collection offers a thorough presentation of the work of this important American avant-garde figure. The full AMERICAN HURRAH triptych, a 1960s classic heralded as the first theatrical expression of the anti-Vietnam War movement, is included along with smaller plays: THE SERPENT, a newfangled Adam and Eve story, and THE BAG LADY, spoken from the point of view of a homeless woman, and other significant works.

On a lonely stretch of road a nameless man commits a murder. The victim is a religious minister on his way to take up a post in a nearby town. The murderer decides to steal the dead man's identity only to discover that one of his .rst duties as the new minister is to bury a body that has just been found close to the quarry… The head of the local police, the Captain, takes a keen interest in the minister's work, although there is evidence linking young petty criminals to the crime. The Captain knows it is the new minister who is guilty. But he bides his time, watching, listening, slowly circling his prey. Building to a climax that is almost too much to bear, the Captain is compelled to pursue the murderer across the veld, while his exhausted quarry struggles to make good his escape. In The Quarry, Galgut brings the power of myth to his tender prose to create a devastating drama, alive with tension.

In a Strange Room. A young man takes three journeys, through Greece, India and Africa. He travels lightly, simply. To those who travel with him and those whom he meets on the way - including a handsome, enigmatic stranger, a group of careless backpackers and a woman on the edge - he is the Follower, the Lover and the Guardian. Yet, despite the man's best intentions, each journey ends in disaster. Together, these three journeys will change his whole life. A novel of longing and thwarted desire, rage and compassion, "In a Strange Room" is the hauntingly beautiful evocation of one man's search for love, and a place to call home.

FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE PROMISEWinner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and shortlisted for the Man Booker, The Good Doctor is a powerful tale of a friendship overshadowed by betrayal, set against the tawdry hopes and disappointments of a post-apartheid South Africa'The Good Doctor will be seen as one of the great literary triumphs of South Africa's transition... by a novelist of great and growing power.' -- Rian Malan, author of My Traitor's Heart

FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE PROMISEWinner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and shortlisted for the Man Booker, The Good Doctor is a powerful tale of a friendship overshadowed by betrayal, set against the tawdry hopes and disappointments of a post-apartheid South AfricaLaurence Waters arrives at his rural hospital posting full of optimism. Frank, the disgruntled deputy, is forced to share his room with the new arrival but is determined to stay out of Laurence's ambitious schemes. When the dilapidated hospital is looted, the two men find themselves uneasy allies in a world where the past is demanding restitution from the present.'The Good Doctor will be seen as one of the great literary triumphs of South Africa's transition... by a novelist of great and growing power.' - Rian Malan, author of My Traitor's Heart

Adam Naiper, un hombre blanco de mediana edad, está pasando por una mala racha: se ha quedado sin trabajo, su matrimonio se ha roto y siente que la decepción es una constante en su vida. Huyendo de todo, pero especialmente de sí mismo, se refugia en una casita próxima al desierto de Karoo que pertenece a su hermano Gavin, próspero promotor inmobiliario que simboliza la nueva Sudáfrica. Decidido a comenzar una nueva vida, retoma su vocación poética, que abandonó veinte años atrás; pero una atmósfera inquietante envuelve la vida de Adam. Un día se encuentra casualmente con un antiguo compañero de colegio, Canning, al que apenas recuerda. Pronto, empieza a frecuentar la casa de su antiguo amigo, heredero de una gran fortuna y propietario de una reserva, Gondwana, que pretende reconvertir en un campo de golf. Para ello, tendrá que sobornar a funcionarios corruptos y tratar con mafiosos. Napier, poco a poco e inconscientemente, se ve implicado en la trama delictiva de su amigo y arrojado a los brazos de su enigmática e inquietante esposa, Baby. El impostor es la lucha de un hombre desorientado por encontrarse a sí mismo en un mundo sacudido por un cambio social y político enorme; un mundo cruel y claustrofóbico, en el que la ambición, el sexo y la muerte andan siempre al acecho de los personajes.

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021**Discover the powerful prizewinning story of a family in crisis.'Astonishing' Colm ToibinThe Promise charts the crash and burn of a white South African family, living on a farm outside Pretoria. The Swarts are gathering for Ma's funeral. The younger generation, Anton and Amor, detest everything the family stand for - not least the failed promise to the Black woman who has worked for them her whole life.After years of service, Salome was promised her own house, her own land... yet somehow, as each decade passes, that promise remains unfulfilled.The narrator's eye shifts and blinks: moving fluidly between characters, flying into their dreams; deliciously lethal in its observation. And as the country moves from old deep divisions to its new so-called fairer society, the lost promise of more than just one family hovers behind the novel's title.In this story of a diminished family, sharp and tender emotional truths hit home.Confident, deft and quietly powerful, The Promise is literary fiction at its finest.'Gorgeous and pleasurable' Tessa Hadley'The most important book of the last ten years' Edmund White'Simply: you must read it' Claire Messud

La impactante historia de una familia en crisis ganadora del Premio Booker 2021.Los Swart son una familia blanca que vive desde hace generaciones en una granja en las afueras de Pretoria, en Sudáfrica. Tras la muerte de la madre, se reunen todos para el funeral en la casa familiar. Amor y Anton, dos de sus hijos, rechazan lo que la familia representa y no olvidan la promesa que su padre hizo a su madre poco antes de morir: que Salome, la mujer negra que lleva trabajando toda la vida para ellos y que la cuido en sus ultimos dias, podria quedarse con la pequeña casa en la que siempre ha vivido. Pero el tiempo va pasando y la promesa no se cumple.La narracion sigue los pasos de los Swart a lo largo de mas de tres decadas; a traves de la minuciosa exploracion de los miembros de la familia y sus conflictos, Galgut nos habla tambien de los cambios politicos y sociales del pais tras el fin de la segregacion racial.La promesa, una originalisima y conmovedora novela ganadora del premio Booker 2021, esta considerada como una de las grandes obras literarias en ingles de la ultima decada.Uno de los mejores escritores del mundo () El libro mas importante de la ultima decada. Edmund WhiteEs tierna y brutal, y Amor, su enigmatica heroina, es el personaje mas fascinante de la narrativa reciente. La recordare y recordare este libro maravilloso y abrumador durante mucho tiempo. Peter CameronLa historia posee una profundidad asombrosa, como si los personajes hubiesen sido imaginados a lo largo del tiempo, con paciencia y tierno cuidado.Colm ToibinLa novela adquiere una dimension estetica y dramatica de muy alto nivel. J. Ernesto Ayala-Dip (El Correo)La promesa celebra la capacidad de la novela para vengarse de la realidad mas oscura mirandola desde angulos que desarticulan todo conato de uniformidad o simplicidad. Antonio Lozano (Cultura/s - La Vanguardia)La promesa es una gran, hermosa y contundente novela contemporanea, y ademas esconde un ejercicio de virtuosismo. Ricardo Menendez Salmon (La Nueva España)Galgut escribe verdadera literatura porque es su dominio del lenguaje el que tras-ciende y convierte en verdadera la historia funesta que aqui se cuenta. Javier Aparicio Maydeu (El Pais)La promesa aborda el espinoso asunto de la familia, sus arenas movedizas, con una crudeza y complejidad que se agradece. Fermin Herrero (El Cuaderno)La genialidad del libro esta en la voz del narrador, que se desliza con fluidez por los personajes en una polifonia preñada de de-cadencia y bancarrota moral que la satira y un humor desencantado hacen llevaderas. Marta Rebon (La Lectura / El Mundo)Damon Galgut nos presenta una lucida radiografia social de Sudafrica, con multiples connotaciones y narrada de una manera apabullante que atrapa desde la primera pagina. Victoriano Suarez Alamo (Canarias 7)Resulta agil, ligera, muy visual, con un lenguaje adecuado a cada momento y personaje, esplendido en el efectismo que permite la inmersion en cada uno de ellos. Aranzazu Miro (El Imparcial)Una obra maestra: un argumento solido, un perfecto dominio de la estructura y una prosa potente, profunda y a la vez cuidada y muy hermosa. Rosa Marti (Vanitatis - El Confidencial)Una de las novelas mas poderosas que se hayan publicado en los ultimos tiempos, una novela deslumbrante, una demostracion de como una novela nos puede hacer ver y pensar. Use Lahoz (Jardin de quimeras, RNE)

Els Swart són una família sud-africana blanca propietaris d'una granja als afores de Pretòria. La família es va retrobant al llarg dels anys en diferents vetlles. La generació més jove, l'Anton i l'Amor, detesten tot el que representa la seva família, sobretot la promesa incomplerta a la dona negra que va treballar per a ells tota la vida. Després d'anys de servei, a la Salomé se li va prometre una casa pròpia, una terra pròpia..., però d'alguna manera, a mesura que passen les dècades, i que el país evoluciona de les antigues divisions a la nova societat anomenada més justa, aquesta promesa continua sense complir-se.La novel·la ens permet entendre la crisi real d'un país on la segregació legalitzada potser s'ha acabat, però en què la tragica divisió entre dos grups de persones encara es manté molt vigent.Aquesta és, sens dubte, una de les millors novel·les de l'any. The Times

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021One family. One promise. One chance to tell a new story.**AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME**'A moving, brilliantly told family epic' Elizabeth Day'Superb' Paula Hawkins'Gripping' Daily MailTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER____________________________On a farm outside Pretoria, the Swarts are gathering for Ma's funeral. The younger generation, Anton and Amor, detest everything the family stand for - not least their treatment of the Black woman who has worked for them her whole life. Salome was to be given her own house, her own land...yet somehow, that vow is carefully ignored.As each decade passes, and the family assemble again, one question hovers over them. Can you ever escape the repercussions of a broken promise?