The Impostor

Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book (Africa region)





When Adam moves into an abandoned house on the dusty edge of town, he is hoping to recover from the loss of his job and his home in the city. But when he meets Canning - a shadowy figure from his childhooh - and Canning's enigmatic and beautiful wife, a sinister new chapter in his life begins. Canning has inherited a vast fortune and built for himself a giant folly in the veld, a magical place of fantasy and dreams that seduces Adam and transforms him absolutely, violently - and perhaps forever.





Damon Galgut's magnificent novel evokes a hot and cruel and claustrophobic world, in which sex and death are never far from the surface. It is his most powerful and unforgettable novel yet.



Damon Galgut was born in Pretoria in 1963. He wrote his first novel, A Sinless Season, when he was seventeen. His other books include Small Circle of Beings, The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs, The Quarry, The Good Doctor, The Impostor and In A Strange Room. The Good Doctor was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Dublin/IMPAC Award, The Impostor was also shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and In a Strange Room was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2021 The Promise won the Booker Prize. He lives in Cape Town.



A gripping tale of secrecy and obsession set in the African savannah.' (SundayTelegraph)



'This is a novel about a country's transition and its moral effects, and it is absolutely brilliant.' (The Times)



'Outstanding... [Galgut is] a major writer worthy to be referred to as a kindred spirit of the great Coetzee.