Lynch wins 2023 Booker Prize for ‘Prophet Song’, Aus reprint available from Friday

In the UK, Paul Lynch has won the 2023 Booker Prize, worth £50,000 (A$95,670), for Prophet Song (Oneworld).

Prophet Song follows scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack as she tries to protect her family in a near-future Ireland, where the government is taking a turn towards tyranny. Lynch said the book was ‘partly an attempt at radical empathy’. ‘I wanted to deepen the reader’s immersion to such a degree that by the end of the book, they would not just know, but feel this problem for themselves.’

Said chair of Judges, Esi Edugyan: ‘From that first knock at the door, Prophet Song forces us out of our complacency as we follow the terrifying plight of a woman seeking to protect her family in an Ireland descending into totalitarianism. We felt unsettled from the start, submerged in—and haunted by—the sustained claustrophobia of Lynch’s powerfully constructed world. He flinches from nothing, depicting the reality of state violence and displacement and offering no easy consolations. Here the sentence is stretched to its limits—Lynch pulls off feats of language that are stunning to witness. He has the heart of a poet, using repetition and recurring motifs to create a visceral reading experience. This is a triumph of emotional storytelling, bracing and brave. With great vividness, Prophet Song captures the social and political anxieties of our current moment. Readers will find it soul-shattering and true, and will not soon forget its warnings.’

Prophet Song was chosen from a shortlist of six announced in September. Bloomsbury Australia told Books+Publishing reprinted stock of the title will be available from United Book Distributors on Friday, 1 December.

Last year’s winner was Shehan Karunatilaka for The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (Sort Of Books).

More information about the award is available at the Booker Prize website.

Category: International news