South African author Damon Galgut has won the 2021 Booker Prize. Galgate won the Booker Prize for his novel The Promise. He was nominated for the award in 2003 and 2010. But he did not receive the award both times
The Promise is Galgut’s first novel in seven years. It shows the transition from apartheid between 1948 and the early 1990s to what is now South Africa. Receiving the award, Galgut said he was humbled and deeply grateful for the honor. Galgut added that it took him a long time to get here. Galgut said 2021 was a great year for African writing. In October, Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurna was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The other five shortlisted for the Booker Prize this year are Anuk Arudpragasat’s A Passage North, Nadifa Mohammed’s The Fortune Men, Patricia Lockwood’s No One Is Talking About This, Maggie Shipstead’s Great Circle, and Richard Powers’ Bilderment.