Irish author Paul Lynch has been honored with the prestigious Booker Prize for Fiction for his impactful novel Prophet Song. The judges praised the book as a “soul-shattering” portrayal of a woman’s struggle to safeguard her family against Ireland’s descent into totalitarianism and war. The Booker Prize was awarded to Lynch’s work ahead of five other finalists from the UK, Ireland, the US, and Canada, who were selected from a pool of 163 novels submitted by publishers.
The Booker Prize is a literary award presented annually for the best English-language novel published in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established in 1968 and named after Booker McConnell Ltd, a British multinational company that sponsored it from 1969 to 2012. The Book Prize is the world’s most prestigious literary award, with previous winners including Dame Hilary Mantel, Margaret Atwood, and Salman Rushdie.
This year’s Booker Prize was given to Prophet Song, Lynch’s fifth novel, which imagines a near-future Ireland that slowly spirals into totalitarianism and civil war. The book follows the story of Eilish Stack, a mother and scientist who must decide how far she will go to protect her children. The judges described the book as a terrifyingly plausible vision of a future that could very well be our own, with a powerfully claustrophobic sense of place and a central character that is both relatable and unforgettable.
It was a bittersweet victory for the Dubliner, who beat out fellow shortlisted authors Chetna Maroo, Jonathan Escoffery, Sarah Bernstein, and Paul Murray to win this year’s award. The book was described as a “sinister yet lyrical portrait of hostility and disquiet” by the judging panel, chaired by Canadian novelist Esi Edugyan. The five-person jury noted that the book “captures the social and political anxieties of our current moment” while dealing with “timeless” themes.
Lynch said that the Syrian civil war and the COVID-19 lockdown inspired him to write the book set in a fictional version of Dublin. He also noted that his goal was not to make a speculative political statement but instead to use the book as an attempt at “radical empathy.”
The book has received critical praise since its release, with John Boyne calling it “entirely original” and the TLS hailing it as a “thunderously powerful” novel. It has been translated into over 25 languages and is the number one bestseller in the UK and Australia.
The book follows the story of a mother’s struggle to safeguard her family against Ireland’s gradual descent into totalitarianism and war. It was a bittersweet victory for the Irish writer, who beat out five other finalists from the UK, Ireland, and the US, chosen from a pool of 163 novels submitted to the Booker Prize committee. The book was hailed as a soul-shattering depiction of a woman’s struggle to protect her children against the backdrop of Ireland’s descent into totalitarianism, war, and death.
