Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (2023), published by Oneworld
What is it about? There is a knock on the door of Eilish Stack’s house. Two members of the newly formed Irish secret police are looking for her husband, Larry, a leader of the teaching trade union. Ireland is in the grip of a government veering towards tyranny. Eilish finds herself in the grip of a nightmare set against the backdrop of a crumbling society. Can she keep her family together?
Why should you read it? Lynch has called the novel an "experiment in radical empathy". Written in poetically charged sentences without speech marks or paragraph breaks, the author passionately immerses the reader right into the heart of the terror. It raises big questions about civil liberties, the rise of the far right, the ecological crisis - a parable of our times. Things fall apart in this exhilarating and terrifying read. Winner of the Booker Prize 2023.
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Listen: Paul Lynch talks Prophet Song with Oliver Callan
What the critics say: "Prophet Song is an extraordinary achievement, totally realistic, demonstrating the power of fiction to enhance our empathy for those elsewhere, living through horrors beyond our everyday experience, witnessed only on the TV screen." Alannah Hopkin, The Examiner.
Lynch on what he writes about…"The dignity of human beings faced with an indifferent and alien world. Life is suffering and yet it’s beautiful. And there’s so much that falls between those two places. I’m never going to get bored of that."
For readers of… Mao II, Don DeLillo; The Road, Cormac McCarthy, 1984, George Orwell.
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