Amor again raises the unfulfilled promise to Anton however, Anton takes no action. Once more, Amor and Anton reunite at the Swart farm for a funeral. Although Astrid’s new marriage puts her in close proximity to powerful political figures, this status does not help her avoid South Africa’s rising crime rates: A carjacker kills her to steal and sell her car. Anton married a girlfriend from his youth, Desirée, and lives on the Swart farm.

Astrid left her first husband for a man with whom she had an affair. Amor left London and now works as a nurse in a South African AIDS ward. While Anton agrees to Amor’s request that he finally honor Manie’s promise to give Salome ownership of her home, he takes no action to do so.Īnother nine years pass between Part 2 and Part 3. Because of a clause in Manie’s will, Anton is forced to apologize to Simmers over a previous disagreement in order to claim his part of the substantial inheritance Manie leaves behind for his three children. Predictably, the snake bites him and he dies shortly after. The details of Manie’s death are macabre: At a publicized fundraiser for his minister Alwyn Simmers’s church, Manie climbs into a snake tank at his reptile park in order to test his faith and try to break the world record for the longest time spent in a snake tank. By this time, Nelson Mandela is president and apartheid has ended, meaning that Black South Africans are now allowed, among other things, to enjoy the same spaces as white South Africans. Nine years have passed since the last time all three siblings were together at their family home, but Manie’s death brings them back to Pretoria. Part 2, “Pa,” finds all three Swart children in their adulthood: Amor lives in London, Astrid is married with twins, and Anton lives far from the Swart family farm without a steady job. At the last minute, however, he decides to desert the military and hitchhikes to a far-off region.

After the funeral services, Amor goes back to her boarding school and Anton returns to his military unit.

Anton’s disagreement with Manie about the promise and other topics surrounding Rachel’s death creates a rift. Manie agrees, but after Rachel’s death he denies ever making the promise, despite Amor’s persistent objections that she heard it. Before she died, Rachel asked her husband, Manie, to grant the family’s Black maid, Salome, ownership of the house she lives in on the family’s land to repay her for her devoted service. They both return home to join their middle sister, Astrid, and attend Rachel’s funeral services. The youngest Swart sibling, Amor, resides at a boarding school, and the eldest Swart sibling, Anton, is current completing his mandatory service with the military. Part 1, “Ma,” revolves around the 1986 death of the Swart matriarch, Rachel.

Damon galgut the promise