The Booker Prize 2021 has been awarded to South African playwright and novelist, Damon Galgut for his book The Promise. Maya Jasanoff, the chair of the 2021 judges made the announcement in a ceremony that was broadcast live. Dalgut was previously shortlisted in 2003 and 2010 and this year, finally took home the top prize.

His award-winning novel is set in South Africa, during the country’s transition out of apartheid. It follows a white family and explores the relationships between the members through the lens of four funerals. Galgut wrote his first book at the age of 17—The Promise is his ninth book and that first in seven years. “The original idea [for the book] came from a conversation with a friend, who’s the last surviving member of his family,” says Galgut.

Sri Lankan Tamil novelist Anuk Arudpragasam made the shortlist for his second book, A Passage North. Other authors who made the final six include debut novelist, Patricia Lockwood with No One is Talking About This, Damon Galgut making the list for the third time with The Promise and Richard Powers making the shortlist a second time with Bewilderment. Wrapping up the shortlist are Nadifa Mohamed’s The Fortune Men and Maggie Shipstead’s Great Circle.

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