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Prophet Song

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Prophet Song

By: Paul Lynch
Narrated by: Gerry O'Brien
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About this listen

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 Dystopian Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Political Science Fiction Thought-Provoking Emotionally Gripping Heartfelt Scary Tear-jerking Marriage

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Critic reviews

'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)
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A gorgeously written book. Lyrical to the point of musical. Stunning to listen to. The story was powerful and emotive and bothered me deeply in a way that made me take stock of my world view. I deeply appreciate the skill and power of a writer that can wrench your heart open and leave you bleeding like that. I will always remember this book.

However, a couple of aspects of this dystopian vision of my homeland did not ring true for me and left me feeling adrift, detached and more than a little frustrated.

The first was the slightly bewildering absence of any memorable mention or reference to Ireland's deeply wrought colonial history. This felt to me like an obvious oversight throughout the book - how a story about a dystopian Irish future could give no notable nod to its dystopian past under centuries of brutal colonial British rule felt like a marginally unforgivable missed beat, oddly estranged from the experience of being Irish in Ireland (for this reader/listener anyway).

I also felt the lens with which the author sees humanity was a shade darker than my own. This made the cadence of the narrative feel a half a footfall out of step with my experience of reality at times.

Amid all the atrocities of the regime and the suffering of the people, acts of tenderness or altruism, or suggestions of any real depth or complexity, are rarely seen outside the protagonist family. I don't believe from what I have experienced of humanity that all it takes is the rotten weight of authoritarian state power to press itself on us for almost all notions of community care and support and even basic decency to be squeezed from us entirely. I feel that there is more to us than that.

I also believe such oppression has a way of pulling nations and communities and people together as much as it can tear them apart. All we have to do is look at the world, to listen both to its history and the current reality for many, to know this. The framing of this imagined world seemed to paint humanity as a disjointed collection of ravenous opportunists and predators just waiting for their moment to pounce.

It's a worrying and dangerous idea - more still because there is a seed of truth in it - and yet, there's more than only that in us and among us. There is some kind of disembodied love in the roots of us that cannot be contained only within those we know intimately - it is a collective kind of love that doesn't have any name in English that I know of. I see it everywhere I look and it is what turns the world as much as any violence.

There were some tantalising near-glimpses of this throughout the story but that was all they remained.

I was moved by this book - but for me, it is a story about a made-up people who do not resemble the fullness or depth of the humanity I am familiar with, nor with the truth and complexity of Irish society.

A dark lens on humanity, beautifully told but missing the colonial context and depth of Irish society

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There’s nothing to dislike here, except the all too real unfolding of events.
The narrator was perfect, exactly the right tone throughout even the most harrowing moments.

This is a hugely relevant tale of our times, beautifully and lyrically written.

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This is possibly the best audio book I have ever listened to. Paul Lynch has evoked, with his excellent prose and the lilting cadence of his words, the gut wrenching horror of war. Nothing I’ve read before has had quite the insight of this excellent book. But it is not an easy tale to hear. The narrator was also perfect. Outstanding literature.

Outstanding but harrowing

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An interesting novel that doesn't hold the hand of the reader. I felt confused by the unexpected fictional politics in the beginning, and very frustrated at the hurried final chapters given the contrast with the lengthier, more detailed early chapters. I don't think I would recommend as a 'story' (primarily because this could have been set in a non-fiction political state) but I enjoyed the texture of the writing. I can see it being well suited to book clubs as there's a lot unsaid for readers to chew over.

Hurried final chapters

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An horrific yet exquisitely told fable for these turbulent times. Catalogues how simply and rapidly events beyond our control or even perception can overtake us. Made so much more scary by the ordinariness of the victims and even more so the protagonists. Power indeed corrupts!
Wonderful read with passion, tenderness and empathy. An incredible experience…

A tale for our times…

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