Will I love Prophet Song?

The winner of the 2023 Booker prize for good reason. This is a brutal, unflinching look at the impact on an ordinary, hardworking family of an increasingly repressive government regime. Its simplicity is disarming. Its impact is huge.

This was one of the hardest books I've ever loved. Not only does it deal with a troubling issue--the rise of a violent, authoritarian government--but the style takes some getting used to, with pages-long paragraphs mingling dialogue and narration in ways that can be bewildering and even frustrating. In the end, though, the book tells a simple story about ordinary people trying to hold their lives together when the world falls apart, and it succeeds brilliantly.

For me, the beauty of this book lies in how its story unfolds in the small frame of one woman’s experience, told by a narrator who is at once painfully close to her and yet aware of dangers she cannot sense. Glancingly punctuated passages take breath and resistance away from me, haul me into the story whether I wish to go there or not—I’m betting some of you feel that way about the daily news, but that won’t be because the daily news is beautifully crafted. I found myself merging fictional context with my real-world preoccupations, which may not be… show more.

I am living in a world where people keep saying we should hold on... not run... things will change for the better soon. That's what the mother in this story believes. She cannot fathom that the worst is happening, and waiting for a better future means that the future will not be there for some. At one point she lies about the age of her young son to get him into the only available hospital, but that lie winds up getting him snatched as a soldier and killed. It is a mother's nightmare. And I took it as a wake-up… show more.

Set in Dublin in what could be the present—though it could be any city in a liberal democracy and any time in the coming years—this is a frighteningly believable story of the arrival and imposition of fascism. The focus is on one normal suburban family whose first response is to shrug. They think, "It doesn't concern us," but slowly, and then sometimes in quick shocks, it does.

The writing is understated. But the description of an incremental, daily drip-drip of tightening repression almost made me feel short of breath. There is no happy ending. It's not escape reading—more a cautionary… show more.

My favorite read of 2024. A dystopian story that is a near-reality in many countries in the world. The ruling party in Ireland adopts a dictatorial and totalitarian approach to govern and the protagonist's husband, a trade union leader, is arrested with no access to lawyers. The plot revolves around the hardships the family goes through: a son joining the rebels, another son brutally tortured, and protagonist's attempts to flee prove futile. Lynch does a great job in capturing the gradual move of the society into a police state. You feel the helplessness of the protagonist and join her in… show more.

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… 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.