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Irish writer Paul Lynch and Booker Prize 2023 winner poses with his specially bound book copy “Prophet Song”.
- Irish author Paul Lynch has won the 2023 Booker Prize for
fiction for his novel Prophet Song. - The book is set in Dublin in a near future version of
Ireland. It follows the struggles of a mother of four as she tries to save her
family from totalitarianism. - The 46-year-old is the fifth Irish writer to win the high-profile
literary prize.
Irish author Paul Lynch won the 2023 Booker Prize for
fiction on Sunday for his novel Prophet Song, a dystopian work
about an Ireland that descends into tyranny.
The 46-year-old pipped five other shortlisted novelists to
the prestigious award at a ceremony in London.
He becomes the fifth Irish writer to win the high-profile
literary prize, which has propelled to fame countless household names,
including past winners Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel.
“This was not an easy book to write,” Lynch said
after collecting his award, which comes with £50,000 (around $63,000) and a
huge boost to his profile.
He added:
“The rational part of me believed I was dooming my career by writing this novel. Though I had to write the book anyway. We do not have a choice in such matters.”
Lynch’s book is set in Dublin in a near future version of
Ireland. It follows the struggles of a mother of four as she tries to save her
family from totalitarianism.
There are no paragraph breaks in the novel, which is Lynch’s
fifth.
Canadian novelist Esi Edugyan, who chaired the five-person
judging panel, called the story “a triumph of emotional storytelling,
bracing and brave”.
“With great vividness, Prophet Song captures the social
and political anxieties of our current moment,” she said.
“Readers will find it soul-shattering and true, and
will not soon forget its warnings.”
The Booker is open to works of fiction by writers of any
nationality, written in English and published in the UK or Ireland between 1 October 2022, and 30 September 2023.
Murdoch, Doyle
None of this year’s six finalists – which included two
Americans, a Canadian, a Kenyan and another Irish author – had been
shortlisted before and only one had previously been longlisted.
The shortlisted novels, announced in September, were chosen
from a 13-strong longlist that had been whittled down from an initial 158
works.
Among them was Irish author Paul Murray’s The Bee
Sting, a tragicomic saga which looks at the role of fate in the travails
of one family.
Murray was previously longlisted in 2010.
Kenyan writer Chetna Maroo’s moving debut novel
Western Lane about grief and sisterhood follows the story of a
teenage girl for whom squash is life.
The judges also selected If I Survive You by US
writer Jonathan Escoffery, which follows a Jamaican family and their chaotic
new life in Miami.
He was joined by fellow American author, Paul Harding, whose
This Other Eden – inspired by historical events – tells the story
of Apple Island, an enclave off the US coast where society’s misfits flock and
build a new home.
Canada was represented on the shortlist in the shape of
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein. The unsettling novel
explores the themes of prejudice and guilt through a suspicious narrator.
The Booker was first awarded in 1969. Last year’s winner was
Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka for The Seven Moons of Maali
Almeida.
The previous Irish winners are Iris Murdoch, John Banville,
Roddy Doyle and Anne Enright.
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