[8] His next book, a collection of short stories called Small Circle of Beings (1988), includes an eponymous novella that describes a mother's struggle with her son's illness.

[9][10] His novel The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs (1991) won the Central News Agency Literary Award in 1992.

[14] The story of two contrasting characters in a remote, rural hospital in post-apartheid South Africa, The Good Doctor was enthusiastically received by critics.

[17] Reviewing the novel in The Guardian, Jan Morris wrote, "I doubt if any book in 2010 will contain more memorable evocations of place than In a Strange Room.

The original idea came from a conversation with a friend, who is the last surviving member of his family, and told Galgut about the funerals he had attended for his mother, father, brother, and sister.

[24] Galgut credits the Roald Dahl short story "Pig" as having had the greatest influence on his writing.