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Paul Lynch is an acclaimed, award-winning author. In his latest book, Prophet Song, Lynch has crafted a razor-sharp Irish dystopia resonant with contemporary geopolitics, exploring free will, liberty and conflict. Prophet Song is shortlisted for Eason Novel of the Year 2023.
Tell us a bit about your latest novel?
Prophet Song begins with a knock on the door on a dark, wet evening in Dublin. Scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack finds two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police, the GBSB, who want to speak with her husband Larry, a trade unionist. Things are falling apart. Ireland is in the grip of a government that is taking a turn toward tyranny. And as a wave of national violence is unleashed, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society. She is forced to make one impossible choice after another in a desperate attempt to keep her family together as the world around her comes undone.
Where did the inspiration for this novel come from? What is the story behind its conception?
So much goes into the inspiration for a novel. But I can say that in 2018, when I began to write this book, I was thinking about our modern chaos. How Western liberal democracies are no longer as stable as we had once presumed. How so many countries in Europe have seen a lurch to the political right. And I thought too about our response to the plight of Syrian refugees flooding into Europe, and the various humanitarian crises that have been occurring around the world and how this will only grow with climate change. I wanted to know, perhaps, where all this might lead us.
What do you hope readers will take away from your narrative?
Prophet Song is a book with many layers and offers multiple readings. Some people see it as a political novel and read it as a warning. Others as a simulation of what other people are going through around the world, a shot of radical empathy if you will. I hope, too, that the book explores eternal problems about human nature — life and death, philosophical blindness, problems of free will, while posing questions, too, about human dignity.
How does it feel to be on this shortlist amongst so many other brilliant authors?
Book prizes are so important for writers as they are a pat on the back from the universe, a job-well-done for writing a book that nobody asked you to write. They can also help direct readers to books amidst such a profusion of published work to choose from.
Ireland is a literary powerhouse. Why do you think this is?
Tradition plays an important role. We are lucky to have had some of the most definitive writers of the 20th century, and writers such as Joyce or Beckett unleash more than great writing. They release a deep energy into the culture that writers continue to absorb for many decades.
Who are your favourite Irish writers?
I think Marina Carr is a writer of uncanny power and intelligence and I have enjoyed reading her plays as much as watching them in the theatre.
What An Post Irish Book Awards shortlisted book is next on your to-be-read pile?
I’m going to take my daughter to the bookshop to buy the entire Children’s Fiction Shortlist in her age group. She needs to learn about the intimidating power of the book pile...
Explore the Eason Novel of the Year Shortlist here.