Prophet Song

Captured the political nature of the times

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch arrived in the mail from a friend and activist on behalf of refugees with a simple note: I think you’ll like this book. Winner of the 2023 Booker Prize, Prophet Song had missed my attention. I tucked it in my bag, sent a thank you but didn’t start reading it right away.

When I finally dipped in for a few pages, I quickly recognized I was reading a truly original voice. After the first chapter I was entirely planted inside the world and the consciousness of Eilish Stack, mother of four, professional woman whose husband… show more.

The story is so very bleak, and yet there is such determination, even hope, when everything seems to have gone to hell.

That is, I couldn't put it down once I got into it. This portrait of a world falling apart because of off-stage political machinations threw me off balance at the beginning. I had to take a second run at it and then I was completely caught up in Lynch's extremely detailed depiction of what it's like to live in a world falling apart. So even though I dreaded every turn in the plot, I read on and on, transported to a world that I hope I will never have to experience. Brilliant writing, right-on details, a tour de force.

In the tumult of an election year, Prophet Song couldn't be timelier. Sadly, this fictional account of a democratic republic's slide into dictatorship requires no great leap of imagination. Without offering any explanation for how this dire situation originated, Lynch has made the story of a single family's harrowing experience with martial law seem completely credible.

The writing is focused, propulsive, and nearly suffocating at times--resembling with uncanny precision what it must be like struggling to survive in a totalitarian state. Lynch makes no allowance for the terrible events, nor does he offer readers an "out" from what that family… show more.

This is a lyrical and atmospheric novel that traces a society and family breaking down in the face of authoritarian government and civil war. I felt an enormous weight on me as it inevitably moved towards further tragedy in its latter half. Although set in Ireland, reading this poignant novel in 2024 most clearly resonates with the ongoing horrific violence against Palestinians.

Hoo boy. This is the kind of book that you pick up and start reading and can't put down and wish you could. Extremely well-written, and at the same time hard to read because it just feels all too familiar and plausible. I imagine many people won't want to read it, but if you've got a tolerance for the dark side in your reading and are a fan of experiencing alternate futures, this one is not to miss. While it offers a distinctive take on the future, Prophet Song feels like one of the most lyrically dark and cautionary dystopian… show more.

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch, winner of the 2023 Booker Prize, is a gripping dystopian novel set in a near-future Ireland that has descended into totalitarianism.

The story follows Eilish Stack, a biologist and mother of four, whose life is upended when her husband, Larry, a union leader, is arrested under the new regime's draconian laws. As Ireland spirals into chaos and civil war, Eilish struggles to protect her family amidst increasing violence and oppression.

The novel poignantly explores themes of survival, the resilience of the human spirit, and the devastating impact of authoritarian rule. Lynch's narrative style, marked by… show more.

I found this book to be a very disturbing, but nonetheless absorbing, read. Set during an unspecified political upheaval that leads to civil war in Ireland, it details the gradual collapse of society, almost unnoticed by the characters at first as things seemingly carry on close to normal, but eventually gather pace until people are subsumed (and consumed) in a totalitarian police state.

The story is frighteningly believable, particularly in the current global political climate, and all the more so since it tells the tale of an ordinary family discovering how their lives can disintegrate so easily in the face… show more.

I found this book compelling because of its chilling reminder of a lesson we apparently learned, but seem to have forgotten, from the 1930s rise of European fascism – that a robust democracy can quickly and easily, and through its own democratic processes, become a viciously fascist order.

Set in modern-day Ireland, the book beautifully weaves its political criticism through the moving story of one ordinary family caught up in the horrible transformation.