October discussion - “Prophet Song” by Paul Lynch

For our October selection, we will be discussing Prophet Song, by Irish novelist Paul Lynch, recently shortlisted for the 2023 Book Prize. Lynch’s four previous novels have received multiple nominations and awards, including the 2016 Prix des Lecteurs Privat, the 2018 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, the 2020 Ireland Francophonie Ambassadors' Literary Award, and the 2022 Prix Gens de Mer.

From the Booker Prize website:
A mother faces a terrible choice, in Paul Lynch’s exhilarating, propulsive and confrontational portrait of a society on the brink

On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her doorstep. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police want to speak with her husband. Things are falling apart. Ireland is in the grip of a government that is taking a turn towards tyranny. And as the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society – assailed by unpredictable forces beyond her control and forced to do whatever it takes to keep her family together.

Comments from the 2023 Booker Prize judges:
“Prophet Song follows one woman’s attempts to save her family in a dystopic Ireland sliding further and further into authoritarian rule. It is a shocking, at times tender novel that is not soon forgotten.”

“It is propulsive and unsparing, and it flinches away from nothing. This is an utterly brave performance by an author at the peak of his powers, and it is terribly moving.”

“Prophet Song has one of the most haunting endings you will ever read. The book lives long in the mind after you’ve set it down.”

The discussion will be at Ollie’s Bar & Grill in Central on Sunday, the 29th of October @2:00 PM.

After the discussion, we will choose the next book by group vote.
Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions.