Galgut, Damon – The Bell Bookshop

Small Circle of Beings

Emma — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The first collection of extraordinary stories from one of the greatest writers of our time.

With astonishing clarity, Booker Prize winner Galgut explores both the intimacies and violence of family life against the complex landscape of 1980s South Africa.

From a mother who experiences a devastating unmooring after her child falls gravely ill, to a son retracing his late father’s brief yet passionate affair, the stories ripple out from one another, tenderly exposing those bonds we cannot escape.

PRAISE FOR DAMON GALGUT:

‘Galgut seems to deliver effortlessly…there’s nothing he can’t do’ Times

‘Damon Galgut is very nearly without peer…an essential writer’ Garth Greenwell

‘Terrifically agile and consistently interesting…certainly up there with Nadine Gordimer and JM Coetzee’ Guardian

The Quarry

Emma — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Give yourself up. Whatever you’ve done. They’ll find you. In the end.

A man with no name staggers down a lonely stretch of road that cuts through the simmering veld of rural South Africa. He is exhausted and hungry yet dives for the long grass whenever cars approach. He is on the run.

When a minister on his way to a new congregation offers help – at a price – the fugitive’s desperation boils over. Stealing the minister’s identity, he is successfully taken in by the township. But when a body is discovered in a nearby quarry, and the local police captain’s suspicions grow, the hunt reignites with devastating consequences.

‘One of South Africa’s great literary voices’ Economist

‘Galgut’s prose feels as if it’s been fired through a crucible, burning away all the comfortable excess until only a hard, concentrated purity remains’ Daily Telegraph

The good doctor

Emma — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

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 HeartLaurence Waters arrives at his rural hospital postingfull 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 Promise

Emma — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021

One family. One promise. One chance to tell a new story.

‘A moving, brilliantly told family epic’ Elizabeth Day

THE 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?

‘A tour de force… A spectacular demonstration of how the novel can make us see and think afresh’ Booker Judges, 2021

‘Astonishing’ Colm Tóibín

‘Utterly compelling’ Patrick Gale

The Promise

Emma — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

**WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021**

‘A tour de force… A spectacular demonstration of how the novel can make us see and think afresh’ Booker Judges 2021

Discover the powerful prizewinning story of a family in crisis.

The 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.

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.

‘Damon Galgut is the most worthy winner of the Booker Prize we’ve seen for many years…The book trembles in the hand with its political relevance’ Rose Tremain, New Statesman

** A NEW STATESMAN , OBSERVER, GUARDIAN , SUNDAY TIMES AND i BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021**
**ONE OF THE DAILY TELEGRAPH’S 75 BEST BOOKS OF 2021**

‘Astonishing’ Colm Tóibín

‘A masterpiece – one of the best books I have read in the past decade… A moving, brilliantly told family epic’ Elizabeth Day

‘This is so obviously one of the best novels of the year’ The Times

‘Utterly compelling’ Patrick Gale

‘Gorgeous and pleasurable’ Tessa Hadley

The Good Doctor

Emma — Thu, 07 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

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

In A Strange Room

Emma — Thu, 07 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2010 MAN BOOKER PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR THE 2010 ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE ONDAATJE PRIZEFROM THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF THE PROMISEA young man takes three journeys, through Greece, India and Africa. He travels with little purpose, letting the chance encounters of the road dictate his path. But although he knows that he is drifting, he is unable to settle. It is as if, without these encounters, the person he is cannot exist. And yet each journey ends in disaster. A novel of longing and thwarted desire, rage and compassion, In a Strange Room is an extraordinary evocation of one man’s search for love, and a place to call home.