Damon Galgut
Born: 01-01-1963
Damon Galgut is a distinguished South African novelist and playwright, renowned for his rich storytelling and exploration of human complexity. Born in Pretoria in 1963, he gained international acclaim with novels like "The Good Doctor" and "In a Strange Room," both shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Galgut's work often delves into themes of identity and existential uncertainty, reflecting the nuanced socio-political landscape of South Africa.
Book summaries for books written by Damon Galgut
Quotes
The things we fear have already happened to us.
All journeys were return journeys. The farther one traveled, the nakeder one got, until, towards the end, ceasing to be animated by any scene, one was most oneself, a man in a bed surrounded by empty bottles. The man who says, 'I've got no illusions' has at least that one.
The world is too big, and we are too small, and so we strive for bigness, and all the time it eludes us.
The past had vanished, the future had vanished. What remained was a present without edges or dimensions.
He had been a different person then, and he had been unable to change. The tragedy was that he was a different person now, and he could not change back.
The two of them were left behind, in a vast silence of their own making.
He had learned that the relief of love was nothing like the relief of traveling. The relief of love was like the relief of not traveling.
There are times when it seems to him that the world is a sheet of glass, and that if he could only walk quietly up to it and press his face against it, it would shatter into a million pieces, and he would be free.
What do you do when the moment comes? When the darkness comes and you can't see the way ahead? You must learn to trust in the darkness.
Everything was always just about to happen. The moments that had come and gone were just a prelude to other moments, and everything was in motion.
He had made a decision, and now he would have to live with it. That was the way life was, a series of decisions that seemed right at the time, but which were in fact irreversible.
There was something that he needed to escape from, but it wasn't clear what it was. Perhaps it was the feeling of being trapped inside a life that had no meaning.