Prophet Song

By: Paul Lynch

Narrated by: 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

Critic reviews

'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)

Gut wrenching !

This is the most wonderful book I listened in 2023. Even after I finished it, my soul aches nonstop; for sure everyone must experience it.

A Lyrical Dystopia Story

A very lyrical dystopia story, almost poetic at times. The reason for why it happens is not important this is a story of living in an authoritarian rule, and trying to make the right decision and living with that choice.

I so wanted to see them get to safety

It mirrors the time we are in now. Powerful controlling and negative people taking over a part of the country.

Tough story to endure

This unrelenting story of a woman’s attempts to save herself and her family from slow destruction caused by the apparent innate human need to destroy itself is in a category reserved for 1984, LORD OF THE FLIES, and BLINDNESS by Jose Saramargo. Very thought-provoking but also horrific.

The consequences of losing democracy, and what happens with an authoritarian leadership.

Sad and scary. A family is faced with tough questions - and ultimately When to
Leave?

Beautifully written

Incredible story, beautifully written yet immensely sad, depressing. Do not read if you want to be lifted up

The exquisite language

Compelling story of the impact on one woman-led family of the inexorable and wretched decline of society in the face of totalitarianism offset with the power of resilience and the will to live.

Beautifully narrated

A devastating novel narrated with nuance and skill. This is a gorgeously written novel about a creeping political apocalypse that brings multiple worlds to an end. The narrator was perfect.

Generational trauma

Excellent emersion in civil war clear trauma results for generations to come in relentless tears and horror

Desperate

The building of the story, though sometimes it was too much to bare. So harsh.