Prophet Song: SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023
£12.50£16.10 (-22%)
‘IF THERE WAS EVER A CRUCIAL BOOK FOR OUR CURRENT TIMES, IT’S PAUL LYNCH’S PROPHET SONG… BRILLIANTLY HAUNTING.’ OBSERVER
The explosive literary sensation: a mother faces a terrible choice as Ireland slides into totalitarianism
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.
Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and when her husband disappears, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a society that is quickly unravelling.
How far will she go to save her family? And what – or who – is she willing to leave behind?
Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Prophet Song is a work of breathtaking originality, offering a devastating vision of a country at war and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.
‘A compassionate, propulsive and timely novel that forces the reader to imagine ― what if this was me?’ FT
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Additional information
| Publisher | 1st edition (24 Aug. 2023), Oneworld Publications |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 320 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0861546458 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0861546459 |
| Dimensions | 15.3 x 2.8 x 23.4 cm |
by Euphemia Black
This is a very bleak and disturbing book. It is set in an imagined dystopian Ireland, where the government is rapidly becoming a police state and any rebellion is crushed without mercy. Reminiscent of Nazi Germany, people get taken into custody and disappear, young boys are recruited Into a military and people are denied means of escape by refusing them passports. Alongside this is are exploitative agencies which can help you at a price. There is no background given as to why or how this state of events came to be – the story is all about a mother trying desperately to save her family and is totally focussed on her point of view. The author’s photo looks appropriately menacing!
by Capt T. R. Burke
Not an easy read but very good read . Really brings the human family aspect into war
by V. O’Regan
All your life you’ve been asleep, all of us sleeping and now the great waking begins.” – ‘Prophet Song’ by Paul Lynch.
It’s hard to imagine the Republic of Ireland falling into this type of totalitarianism and yet I feel that this is partly what Lynch is seeking to highlight in this work of speculative literary fiction: that the harrowing situations depicted in ‘Prophet Song’ are not something that could only happen in some far off distant land to people that the reader might perceive as ‘other’ but much closer to home.
My first impressions of this novel was that the gradual erosion of civil liberties was indeed analogous to the metaphor of the frog in a slowly heated pot of water. I found Eilish a very relatable protagonist, seeking to keep her family together and life as normal as possible despite the escalating violence. An archetypal mother figure, her love and hope shone brightly through to the last page.
Overall, I was blown away by the raw power of this relatively short novel and its perspective on the refugee experience While this is my first read of the 2023 Booker Prize shortlisted titles, I feel that it will be a hard one to beat both as a personal favourite and as the winner of the Prize itself.
by Marion Moore
Long convoluted story about the collapse of society in Ireland. Nothing rang true, think Lynch forgot the whole ethos of Irish identity, a waste of time long passages just filling up space….and waste of my money
by Peter S
This is a difficult read – harrowing but compulsive – about what can happen if democracy is allowed to die. Except that the “sit up and take notice” twist at the end reveals that that’s not all it’s about. It would be a very worthy Booker winner (this review written between shortlist and award announcements).
by JB
An extraordinary book, so beautifully written. I have not been as moved by a novel for some time. The book is set in my home town and the description of society’s descent into an authoritarian, lawless regime was incredibly emotive, harrowing at times. It is not an easy story to read but so very important .
by Janeymac
This will surely win the Booker. A clever retelling of so many people across the world when their normal lives are changed by oppressive regimes taking over and the steady slide into a living nightmare.
Bringing it into a place which I know so well, and with characters and names so familiar they could be my own family, made this a poignant and chilling reminder of the fate of so many refugees who have no option but to flee their homelands.
I was chilled to the bone by much that happened in this book.
Clever, poetic, and needed to be told.
Brilliant.
by stevros
An excellent novel which i found difficult to put down. Edge of your seat storytelling, a cautionary tale and beautifully written.