Prophet Song

De: Paul Lynch

Narrado por: Gerry O'Brien

Winner of the Booker Prize 2023

On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother of four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.

Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and when her husband disappears, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a society that is quickly unravelling.

How far will she go to save her family? And what – or who – is she willing to leave behind?

Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Prophet Song is a work of breathtaking originality, offering a devastating vision of a country at war and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.

2023, Booker Prize, Winner

2023, An Post Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year, Short-listed

2025, Dublin Literary Award, Long-listed

©2023 Paul Lynch (P)2023 Bolinda Publishing

Reseñas de la Crítica

'I haven't read a book that has shaken me so intensely in many years ... The comparisons are inevitable – Saramago, Orwell, McCarthy – but this novel will stand entirely on its own.' (Colum McCann, author of Apeirogon)

'Monumental ... You remember why fiction matters. It's hard to recall a more powerful novel in recent years.' (Samantha Harvey, author of The Western Wind)

'Prophet Song is a literary manifesto for empathy for those in need and a brilliant, haunting novel that should be placed into the hands of policymakers everywhere.' (The Guardian)

The end of the world is happening around us all the time; maybe not to us but for others.

Listening to the audio book was much easier than reading the book, which I found challenging due to lack of punctuation, paragraph breaks, etc. The first half of the book was at times a little hard to follow, but the second half became much more compelling. The second half of the book did a good job of conveying the struggles of displaced people, who to the rest of us not affected, are all but invisible. Yet for the displaced, the end of the world is happening while we live our lives as normal. Silence facilitates the advance of darkness.

Is it future fiction? Or Now Somewhere?

Of course I listened twice, this is the kind of art to be savored, rolled around and thought on again. How far are we from such a scenario? We really don't know the specifics of the politics here, but peace has been lost and the basics of life we take for granted are gone.

How quick Democracy can change.

Great read, and absolutely a story to ponder for generations to come. Unfortunately. Pick it up and read.

Powerful

Darkly, beautifully written and read. Not since I read Eric Lawton’s The Splendid and the Vile has a book placed me wholly into the heart of violent conflict.

The civil unrest, fueled by ignorance and conspiracy, engulfs Eilish as she blindly refuses to face the immensity of the struggle leading into full blown war.

A study in denial and fierce love of her husband, children and demented father.

Heartbreaking. Brilliant. I was not the same after reading/hearing this book.

It is like being there in a country taken over by a right wing government and the chaos that ensues.

Clever writing

So depressing. Don’t think I’d recommend this, listen to it on a road trip, miserable

Devastating and beautiful.

Only a few pages in and you understand why this is an award winning novel. It’s good that I listened to the book rather than read it because I doubt I could have read through my tears as the story unwound. The narration is spot on, lovingly caring for the reader as much as the words. Mr.Lynch’s beautiful writing gives breath to inanimate things, making far-away places familiar and each seemingly small decision grow in its consequence. He leaves questions unanswered as they only can be, refusing to tie up ugly ends as if they could ever be. It’s not a book that you set down and forget about. It haunts you. Every time I think of what’s happening in the world today, I will think of Eillish and Larry, Molly, Bailey, Mark and Ben. How many thousands of people are living their nightmare right now?

Fantastic Writing

Perhaps the most well written book I’ve ever read or listened to. The story is captivating, given the current times we live in. This is a “don’t miss” book.

believably haunting

It portrayed how easily a state can slip into toltarianism. Possible in the US. Seems we are headed in that direction and the book makes that possibility credible. The characters were well developed and I empathized with them.

Brilliant Warning

A dystopian world that is all too believable. Wonderfully written and narrated. Let us all realize this world can happen while we think democracy is safe.