After being widely tipped to win, South African author Damon Galgut is this year’s Booker Prize winner for his novel The Promise*. His 9th novel follows a white South African family from the apartheid era to the present day, and it centres on a broken promise to the family’s black maid. It’s the first time Galgut has claimed the prestigious $90,000 prize after 2 of his previous novels just missed out. Beating the likes of Richard Powers’ Bewilderment* and Patricia Lockwood’s debut No One is Talking About This*, Galgut’s“tour de force” is “dense with historical and metaphorical significance”, the judges said. Galgut used his acceptance speech to back African authors. “I would like to accept this on behalf of all the stories told and untold, the writers heard and unheard from the remarkable continent I’m part of. Please keep listening to us. There’s a lot more to come!“ he said.