This was a really incredible, intimate, frightening, heartbreaking dystopia. So well written and harrowing.

A harrowing dystopian novel unconventional told from the perspective of a woman trying (and failing) to keep her family together in the face of an unexplained political collapse. Though the ambiguity of the political upheaval allows a focus on the characters, and a universality in the application of fear, it also results in too easy of a merging of many current disasters. Only by tying the apocalyptic narrative to the events of the Irish troubles was I able to understand the profound impact of the world the book hypothesizes.

This book also contains unconventional formatting, both with its lack of paragraphs and lack of quoted dialogue. Though it took a couple dozen pages to get used to, this format ultimately succeeded in mimicking the ambiguous atmosphere of the novel, blending reality with imagination, what is said with what is thought.

It’s a DNF for me at 25%. I am really trying but the writing style and format are so difficult for me to get through.

Lack of punctuation usually isn’t a problem for me, but the author choosing to write the book in big blocks of text make it so difficult not to continuously zone out and not taking in anything of what is happening — which is a shame because I am enjoying the story.

I’m sorry.

RIP me. This book. I'm done.

Those Booker judges last year - honestly, did they just compile the most depressing reads of the year and call it a Longlist? This was my 7th from the list and nary a laugh amongst them!

Ok that being said - this book (the Winner of the Booker Prize 2023) is absolutely brilliant. Shockingly so. I was so stressed and sad while reading it - I was fighting tears for most of the second half, and obsessing about it when I wasn't reading or listening to it. This is probably not selling it, but I love when a book makes me feel such powerful feelings.

It is set in a dystopian Republic of Ireland where "the Party" have been in power for 2 years and the state is slipping into totalitarianism. The whole novel is centred on Eilish and her family and begins with her husband being arrested and taken away with no explanation. It is her thoughts, her conversations and her life as she tries to deal with the unravelling situation and protect her 4 children and her elderly father. Honestly, my heart. I cannot do it justice. The writing is stunning. I can completely see why it won the award.

Lynch stated in an interview that one of the main inspirations for the book was the Syrian Civil War, the ensuing refugee crisis, and the West's indifference to the plight of refugees. I spent the entire book thinking of the mothers in Palestine and their absolute helplessness and heartbreak. If you read any of the quotes you will understand what I mean. There's a whole part where she is trying to seek medical help for one of the children and it is one of the most frustrating and distressing things I have read.

It will most definitely not be for everyone, and I think if I just read it alone without any audio I may have struggled to get into it. There are no speech marks, or paragraphs and it is very dense and train of thought like. My husband described it as very monotone. But I found with the combination of the written work and the audio I was able to adjust to the style and you get used to it very quickly.

This one broke my heart. A new all-time favourite for sure.

This is a powerful book that had me gripped to each page. The conclusion leaves you with a haunting sense of proximity to real-world events experienced by many and that are close to the surface in many countries. Prophet Song depicts a nation’s transformation, a change in government leading to the erosion of rights and freedoms. Eilish Slack battles to keep her family intact after her husband, protesting the new regime, vanishes overnight. As her older son joins the resistance, she faces the dilemma of choosing to stay in her homeland or seek refuge with the rest of her family. The story’s believability is unsettling, reflecting the harsh reality in some countries right now and people having to make impossible choices. The storytelling and the writing were excellent.

Thank you Netgalley for this eARC!

Maybe a little too pertinent for our time. I really enjoyed the way the 'major players' are a sideline in this. We're watching a mother attempt to survive with her children. To do all that mothers have to do only here under incredibly extreme circumstances.

Incredible. It's no surprise this book has taken the literary world by storm. I love this book and am so glad I had the chance to read it.

Absolutely beautiful, this book reads like poetry and hits like an emotional sledgehammer. It’s far from an easy read but wow - worth every second.

Absolutely nerve-shredding. Lynch delivers a chilling rebuke to all the 'it couldn't happen here' voices out there by showing us an Ireland where it has happened -- you could even say happened again. The way that society in this very very near future slips, slides, falls, and suddenly is in the midst of paramilitary conflict will take your breath away. Remember that it not only could happen here, but it could happen this fast.

It doesn’t pick up until more than halfway through, and no paragraph break or quotation marks is a CHOICE. Unfortunate because those stylistic choices take away from the travesty that is living through war.

An all-too-plausible dystopian novel. Absolutely can see why it won the Booker and will be recommending it. The writing style took a bit to get used to but it wouldn't be the same story without the tense, claustrophobic feeling it lends.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the advanced copy.

Didn’t get to finish this in time before it was published but I’m SO happy it won the Booker prize 🥹 I bought a copy and am rereading since my arc expired. I anticipate this will be a five star read. It’s so powerful.

Not a light, easy to read or entertaining novel but a powerful one: it kept me enthralled even I found it disturbing at times as it seems to describe a possible future not so far from reality.
Great storytelling and style of writing, a book that made me think but also made me feel afraid.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This is a remarkable novel. Readers can feel the impending menace from the very first pages and that feeling never lets up. Paul Lynch has written a powerful novel about things that once seemed impossible to imagine, but now feels all too plausible.

“History is a silent record of people who could not leave, it is the record of the people who did not have a choice, you cannot leave when you have nowhere to go and have not the means to go there, you cannot leave when your children cannot get a passport, cannot go when your feet are rooted in the earth and to leave means tearing off your feet.”

A slow start but this picked up big, and the themes are terrifyingly relevant to today. A powerful portrait of a mother trying to hold her family together, while a violent conflict between a right-wing government and a resistance force threatens to swallow them whole. READ THIS.

Thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel.

This novel, by Paul Lynch, is a stunning piece of fiction. Lynch manages to capture a claustrophobic, menacing sense of anxiety throughout the book that did not relent.

A timely and meaningful commentary on the slippery slope of authoritarian governments and how citizens are caught in the crossfire of political games. “The end of the world is local” hit a particularly strong note with me.

Not a joy to read, but one that will stay with me for a long time.

I have had this book on my TBR for a few months even before it won The Booker Prize in 2023. This is a powerful book that had me gripped to each page. The conclusion leaves you with a haunting sense of proximity to real-world events experienced by many and that are close to the surface in many countries.💔

Prophet Song depicts a nation’s transformation, a change in government leading to the erosion of rights and freedoms. Eilish Slack battles to keep her family intact after her husband, protesting the new regime, vanishes overnight. As her older son joins the resistance, she faces the dilemma of choosing to stay in her homeland or seek refuge with the rest of her family.💔

Your heart is torn as you read this story. The choices, the desperation and sadness. The story’s believability is unsettling, reflecting the harsh reality in some countries right now. People having to make impossible choices. I couldn’t put this book down. The storytelling and the writing were excellent. The absence of quotation marks and paragraph breaks, rather than hindering the story, intensifies the sense of desperation. Highly recommend this one. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“History is a silent record of people who could not leave, it is a record of those who did not have a choice, you cannot leave when you have nowhere to go and have no means to go there …”

Thank you to @groveatlantic for a copy of this book.
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#bookrecommendations #prophetsong #paullynch

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Thank you so much for sending me this book. I asked for this on a whim and was SO EXCITED when I realised it was up for the Booker Prize and then went on to win it, and for good reason.

Lynch's writing is beautiful. It's so engrossing and yet you also want to find your way out. I think this book would be best read in physical copy due to his writing style which includes large blocks of text with very few full stops as reading this on my phone really lost some of the magic it held I think. I definitely can't wait to pick up the physical version of this for a re-read as I think it will be a much better reading experience for this poetic and powerful writing.

The book was incredibly moving.

Very rarely does a novel enrapture your emotions entirely and relentlessly. The winner of the Booker Prize 2023, Prophet Song presents a terrifying and shocking vision of a country sliding into authoritarianism and a deeply human portrait of a mother's fight to hold her family together.

Each time I picked up this book, I felt Eilish's transformation of hope to that of diminishing resolve, so much so that I found myself needing to lift my head from the book and breathe to calm my nerves. Early on in the novel, an enigmatic darkness permeates Eilish's life, holding her within its clutch, and the recurrent entrance of this darkness rings like a siren song of the canaries of the coal mines for the reader. Lynch’s profound lyrical prose so honestly, painfully and beautifully holds you in their grasp, making for a profoundly engaging and thought-provoking reading experience.

Prophet Song echoes the violence in Palestine, Ukraine and Syria, and the experience of all those who flee from war-torn countries. This is a story of bloodshed and heartache that strikes at the core of the inhumanity of Western politicians' responses to the refugee crisis.

Winner of the Booker Prize 2023

Set in an alternative present (or maybe near-future) where after the right-wing National Alliance party seizes control of the government, Ireland is descending into totalitarianism. Eilish, a scientist and a mother of four, has to take care of her children.

I really tried (and hopefully succeeded in) erasing my friend’s rates from my mind before reading. This was my second try reading this novel. I struggled to read it, and the long chunks of text with no paragraph breaks certainly didn’t help (and I'm aware this was done intentionally to create the atmosphere).

The original idea was interesting, but it didn’t work for me. The novel didn’t grab me and somehow didn’t sound authentic and probable, at least in this way. And many details were never explained, or maybe I didn't catch them. Also, I couldn’t get to like Eilish. She is supposed to be a likable character, and you should feel compassion for her. There’s much heartache in this story, and in its essence, it is not a bad one. But I couldn’t get past some of her statements and actions. Yes, I will mention this, too. Like her disbelief that someone could listen to your phone call is one of them. Really? I was wondering if she was really that naive or just plain dumb.

But I can see also what others liked. I would say that the horror of something like this happening in the Western world, now, to us, and not in some faraway country, is among the powerful reasons. Similar stories happened before and are happening right now, so why would this story be any different or more horrific?

I can't decide about the rating. 2.5, maybe 3 stars.