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. 

Eilish

Eilish is the novel’s protagonist. A microbiologist and mother of four, Eilish is left to care for her children on her own after her husband Larry ‘disappears’ after attending a protest. Fiercely protective of her family, as society all but collapses around her, Eilish must decide what she is willing to leave behind to ensure they all survive. 

Mark 

Mark is Eilish’s eldest son, caught between child and adulthood. Eilish desperately wishes to smuggle him over the border to safety, but Mark decides to leave home to join rebel forces instead of enduring the mandatory conscription of the police state. 

Áine

Áine is Eilish’s sister who lives in Toronto. She is deeply concerned for the family and her distance allows her a unique perspective to observe the unravelling of Irish society. Áine sends traffickers to Eilish’s house in Dublin, in a desperate attempt to persuade her and the family to leave and come to Canada instead.

Paul Lynch is an internationally acclaimed Irish novelist who has published five novels, winning several awards in the process.

Before Prophet Song, which is shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2023, Lynch wrote four novels: Beyond the Sea, Grace, The Black Snow and Red Sky in Morning. His third novel, Grace, won the 2018 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year and the 2020 Ireland Francophonie Ambassadors’ Literary Award. His second novel, The Black Snow, won France’s bookseller prize, Prix Libr’à Nous for Best Foreign Novel. 

‘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. Propulsive and unsparing, 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.’

‘I was trying to see into the modern chaos. The unrest in Western democracies. The problem of Syria – the implosion of an entire nation, the scale of its refugee crisis and the West’s indifference. The invasion of Ukraine had not even begun. I couldn’t write directly about Syria so I brought the problem to Ireland as a simulation. The book began with a problem that Larry Stack is faced with: how do you prove that a democratic act is not an act against the state? The novel grew in complexity and developed its own implacable logic. It began to speak to multiple political realities all at once. There’s a line from Cormac McCarthy’s The Crossing that I sought to use as an epigraph that speaks to my intention, but Cormac was unwell and we couldn’t get permission in time for publication: “The task of the narrator is not an easy one … He appears to be required to choose his tale from among the many that are possible. But of course that is not the case. The case is rather to make many of the one.”’  

Read Paul Lynch’s full interview here.

Prophet Song begins with two epigraphs: one from the Bible, a quote from Ecclesiastes 1:9; followed by one from Bertolt Brecht, the German playwright and poet. What is their significance, and why has Paul Lynch chosen these to open the novel? 

Prophet Song is written with an unusual structure. The sentences are long and the author eschews the use of paragraphs. Why do you think he has chosen to write the story in this manner? Is it successful in creating atmosphere around the reading experience?

The story is told from Eilish’s perspective and stays close to her throughout, yet there are no dialogue markers in the text, with Lynch choosing to avoid use of quotation marks. ‘He looks up and shakes his head and says, maybe you’re right, Eilish, this is not the time, it is madness to go ahead, I’ll give them a call, tell them I’m out sick.’ (Page 28). How does this style of prose serve the story? Does it allow you to see the story through Eilish’s eyes? 

Prophet Song is set in a dystopian Ireland which is slowly sinking into authoritarian rule. What places and events may have served as inspiration for the novel? And why do you think the author chose to root the novel in a Western country with a democratically elected government, rather than somewhere more volatile? Is Ireland a believable location for the events described in the book?

The Booker judges said the novel captures ‘the social and political anxieties of our moment’. To what extent do you think the novel is prescient, and do you think it is intended to be read as a cautionary tale? 

‘You need to relax, the GNSB are not the Stasi, they are just applying a little pressure, that is all,’ Larry tells Eilish at an early point in the story (page 28). Where does the irony lie in this statement with references to the Stasi, the secret police force of East Germany? And to what extent do you think the characters cling to the belief that a country as civilised as theirs could never descend into such a terrifying situation?

‘The south of this city will be put to siege and the military will turn this place into hell, they will pound the rebels into submission, you’ll becut off from the world, from supplies, none of what I tell you is a secret, you have children to think of, you have an elderly father who is in need of medical Care.’ (Page 212). Elish is a woman dedicated to, and immensely protective of her family and children. What battles is she facing, and what may be prohibiting her from leaving Dublin, despite being told by multiple sources she should now leave the city?  

‘History is a silent record of people who did not know when to leave.’ (Page 103). Áine, Elish’s sister tells her this while trying to get her to journey to Canada with the children. What historical events might she be referring to, and why does she deem it a ‘silent’ record?

Much of the novel offers a commentary on our cultural desensitisation to real-world events, including war, due to over-saturation by the media. What purpose does the media serve in the novel, and do you agree this may be the case?

In an interview with the Booker Prizes website, Paul Lynch said ‘I was trying to see into the modern chaos. The unrest in Western democracies. The problem of Syria – the implosion of an entire nation, the scale of its refugee crisis and the West’s indifference. […] I was aware while writing this book that I was addressing, in part, a modern problem: why are we in the West so short on empathy for the refugees flooding towards our borders? Prophet Song is partly an attempt at radical empathy. To understand better, we must first experience the problem for ourselves.’ Discuss the impact of the novel on you in relation to this quote from Lynch - did it make you feel differently about the plight of refugees elsewhere in the world?

The FT: Prophet Song — Paul Lynch’s Dublin dystopia

The Irish Times: Paul Lynch: ‘The idea of not being around for my children was the most distressing feeling I’ve ever had’

The Big Issue: Writing a modern novel: How to compete with the tyranny of the new

Grace by Paul Lynch

The Black Snow by Paul Lynch

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Translated Accounts by James Kelman

The Wall by John Lanchester

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell