📚 To elicit a reaction, some authors may rely on ludicrous plot twists, killing off a beloved character, or making each and every moment feels like a race against time — Paul Lynch is not one such author. In Prophet Song, recipient of the 2023 Booker Prize, Lynch instills a horror that draws upon a reality that is never too far away.

What happens when your country becomes a prison? It’s dark in Dublin, eerily quiet, and someone is watching. Right off the bat, there is an engrossing sense of unease present in Prophet Song’s very first chapter. Following Eilish Stack and her family, Prophet Song takes place in Ireland during a fictional near-future timeline. The novel begins with Eilish at home at night, awaiting her husband’s — an Irish trade unionist — return.

Two strangers knock on the doors, announcing themselves as members of the Garda — a newly instated police organization. They’re asking for her husband’s whereabouts, and promptly leave upon learning he is not home. Eilish begins to worry, and her nonchalant husband, upon his return, cannot begin to understand why she is.

1984 meets The Handmaid’s Tale meets reality. As the pages fall, the reader quickly realizes that something is terribly wrong, and is about to get much worse. Eilish’s husband, Larry, is detained on accusations of protest against the new far-right government. The kicker? It’s now pretty much martial law in all but name — and there’s nothing they can do about it.

An instant speculative fiction classic. “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,” Lynch said in an interview with The Booker Prize Foundation. Through Prophet Song, he writes of a country descending into chaos with no foreign resistance — a scenario all too common for countries of the Global South, which westerners have been “desensitised [by] daily.” In doing so, Lynch presents an alarming truth: chaos is never too far away, no matter where you are.

Paul Lynch is a master of the pen. The author’s prose immediately grasps attention. Words flow between introspection, descriptions, and dialogue (as is the case with many Irish authors, he eschews speech marks). This leaves for an experience in which the reader cannot afford to break gaze, lest the fantasy is cut short. It’s an immersive experience, and one that is uncomfortable in a manner that holds you still and doesn’t let go. While the novel is indeed fictional, it feels hauntingly real.

WHERE TO GET IT- You can find Prophet Song in paperback at Kalimat or place a special order for it from The Bookspot. Look out for a restock on Diwan ’s website. You can also find the eBook on Amazon.

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