#BookReview of #ProphetSong by Paul Lynch

‘A fearless portrait of a society on the brink as a mother faces a terrible choice,
from an internationally award-winning author‘
– Prophet Song

[ About Prophet Song ]

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?

[ My Review ]

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch was published with One World Publications August 24th. Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023, it is described as ‘exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive…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’.

On hearing about the number of Irish authors longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023 I was obviously delighted. It is an absolute credit to the quality of talented writing that is being produced in Ireland and also to the support that is provided to facilitate this talent to develop. I had read Sebastian Barry’s Old God’s Time and The Bee Sting by Paul Murray so I was delighted to receive a copy of How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney (via the Kinsale Literary Festival as I will be chatting to Elaine Feeney in October) and ordered a signed hardback of Prophet Song from Kenny’s in Galway. I had no expectations for Prophet Song so, although I had heard it was of a dystopian nature, I approached it as a blank canvas of sorts. I was completely unprepared for the numbness I experienced as the pure horror and the palpable fear emanated off the pages.

Prophet Song is set in Ireland, in a society very different from today, but not so very different from societies in other parts of the world. A totalitarian government is now in power and the GNSB (Garda National Services Bureau) has been created to keep the population in check. Larry Stack is a lead trade unionist and is involved in the organising of an upcoming rally. One evening the GNSB knock on the door of their Dublin home. Eilish, Larry’s wife, is understandably concerned when they ask for Larry, but he isn’t at home at that moment. They request that he drop into Kevin Street Garda Station for a chat, where he is spoken to about inciting ‘discord and unrest.’ Larry believes in truth and justice but in this authoritarian state, his views and actions are seen as promoting hatred against the government and its rulings.

One day soon after, Larry fails to come home. Eilish is bereft and unable to find out anything about his whereabouts. She eventually hears that he might be in an internment camp for dissidents but Eilish is told to stop asking questions and to stop drawing attention to herself and her family. Eilish has four children, Mark, Molly, Bailey and Ben. She works as a scientist and also keeps an eye on her father Simon, who lives alone and is showing signs of dementia. Eilish Stack is a mother, wife and daughter struggling to manage her days, trying to juggle the numerous balls attached to parenting and caring for an elderly parent. With Larry’s disappearance, Eilish begins to flounder. How can this be happening? What is happening to society? Her life was, not so long ago, relatively normal but now it has imploded, with a government in place determined to lead by fear and tyranny.

Eilish and her family’s lives change dramatically when the city is thrown into disarray as a rebel group begins to stand up against the horror of this new regime. Soon the country is a place of civil unrest with the disappearance of neighbours and friends commonplace. To survive is the only objective. On the international stage, the world watches on but little is done to assist and soon all internet activity is blocked and shut down.

Eilish Stack is faced with unimaginable and horrific challenges, ones that, as a parent, brought me to tears. Her life is upended as fighting breaks out across the city and country, leaving her having to make horrendous decisions in order to fight for the survival of everything she has ever known. Paul Lynch has created an intense and extremely realistic depiction of a dysfunctional society that is collapsing. Described as dystopian, it is, in fact, a reflection of what life is like for many refugees today who seek another life away from the despotic governance of their own homes.

In an interview over on the Booker Prize website, Paul Lynch answered a question about Prophet Song perhaps being a cautionary tale by stating the following:

‘I was aware while writing this book that I was addressing, in part, a modern problem: why are we in the West so short on empathy for the refugees flooding towards our borders? Prophet Song is partly an attempt at radical empathy. To understand better, we must first experience the problem for ourselves. And so I sought to deepen the dystopian by bringing to it a high degree of realism.
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.’  
– Paul Lynch, Booker Prizes Feature

These words perfectly describe my feelings and experiences on reading this powerful and shocking novel. Many of us have become immune to what is happening in the world today. We have become desensitised to what we read and see on our screens, as we are remote from the problem. In Prophet Song, Paul Lynch brings this horror to our doorstep. It becomes real. The quality of writing is exceptional. I have seen it described as quite technical as it does read without much punctuation but this style actually adds to the urgency of what is unfolding. Who has time for inverted commas when fear is dominating the pages?

Prophet Song left me in a dark place as I contemplated what I had just read. This is a truly immersive experience, one that needs to be felt by everyone. The terror, the hatred, the descent into chaos are all very vividly portrayed leaving revulsion in its wake. Profound and hair-raising, Prophet Song is a book for our time, an imperative and compelling read that will shake you to the core and remind you of the fragility of our society.

[ Bio ]

Paul Lynch is the author of the novels Red Sky in Morning, The Black Snow, Grace and Beyond the Sea. Grace won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2018 and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing 2018. The Black Snow won France’s Prix Libr’à Nous for Best Foreign Novel and was a finalist for the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Best Foreign Book Prize). He lives in Dublin with his wife and two children. 

Website – www.paullynchwriter.com
X(Twitter) – @paullynchwriter