What is the book 'Prophet Song' about? Irish author Paul Lynch wins Booker prize for dystopian novel

On Sunday, November 26, Irish author Paul Lynch's fifth novel, Prophet Song, won the 2023 Booker Prize at an Old Billingsgate, London event. He received his trophy with a $63,000 cash prize from the previous year's winner, Shehan Karunatilaka, a Sri Lankan author who received the honor for his third novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.

Prophet Song is set in a dystopian Ireland and tells the story of a country falling into the throws of totalitarianism. It creates a breathtaking claustrophobic atmosphere of countries ravaged by civil unrest and the helplessness of people trying to escape the situation, drawing uncanny parallels to real-world problems.

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Paul Lynch's Prophet Song "captures the social and political anxieties of our current moment"

Paul Lynch's Prophet Song tells the story of its protagonist, Eilish Stack, a scientist and mother of four, and how she attempts to save them from a dystopian Ireland falling apart due to the rise of totalitarianism, which eventually descends into civil unrest and war. In the book, the National Alliance party seizes control of Ireland.

The far-right party dominates all wings of the government by repealing civil liberties and over-empowering the police and the judiciary, along with creating a secret police force. Protestors, including Eilish's husband and trade union leader, Larry Stack, are quickly arrested. The country descends into war, and people who rebel are jailed or killed as Eilish contemplates escaping the nation in turmoil.

The Booker Prize 2023 judges stated,

"This is a triumph of emotional storytelling, bracing and brave. With great vividness, Prophet Song captures the social and political anxieties of our current moment."

They further added,

"Readers will find it soul-shattering and true, and will not soon forget its warnings."

In an observer review of Paul Lynch's novel, author Aimée Walsh called the book a "crucial book for our current times." She also likened the novel to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Anna Burns’s Milkman. Another thing she noted was the lack of paragraph spacing in the book, which only added to its "breathless, claustrophobic atmosphere." She called the book a "literary manifesto for empathy."

The review detailed,

"Lynch’s dystopian Ireland reflects the reality of war-torn countries, where refugees take to the sea to escape persecution on land."

She added,

"Prophet Song echoes the violence in Palestine, Ukraine and Syria, and the experience of all those who flee from war-torn countries."

Paul Lynch revealed in a Booker Prize interview that he took "four long years" to write the novel. He had previously spent six months "writing the wrong book." Although he knew it was the wrong book, Lynch kept writing until he completely stopped "one Friday, about 3 pm".

The interviewer asked Lynch about his inspiration behind setting the book in his home country and if he had any real-world inspirations.

Paul Lynch replied,

"I was trying to see into the modern chaos. The unrest in Western democracies. The problem of Syria – the implosion of an entire nation, the scale of its refugee crisis and the West’s indifference."

He replied,

"The invasion of Ukraine had not even begun. I couldn’t write directly about Syria so I brought the problem to Ireland as a simulation."

When asked about judges exclaiming that the book reflected "social and political anxieties of our current moment," Lynch said that he disliked fiction that used literature solely for political ends. However, despite this, the author said he was aware of the problem he addressed utilizing this book: the West's lack of empathy for immigrants. He called his book "partly an attempt at radical empathy."