• Prophet Song

  • By: Paul Lynch
  • Narrated by: Gerry O'Brien
  • Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (420 ratings)

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Prophet Song  By  cover art

Prophet Song

By: Paul Lynch
Narrated by: Gerry O'Brien
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Publisher's summary

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

©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)

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What listeners say about Prophet Song

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

generic autocracy

Welcome to Dystopia. Without context one dystopia is as good as another. Some, ANY, context would lend believability to the story. And Ireland!! For gods sake, anywhere but Ireland. Just doesn't ring true. Critics laud the absence of a back story claiming that this nasty autocratic, villainous government could apply to any nasty villainous government anywhere. That's the problem!
The writing is also marred by "overmetaphorization". If one metaphor is good then two or three is better. Every item is encrusted with frilly prose which is distracting and slows the pace of the narrative

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Timely

Took me to the darkness that I pray we never reach in this country. An important read for those who believe it can’t happen.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

How adeptly the reader handled the author’s style of writing to convey so perfectly this amazing novel.

Loved every inch of this most amazing novel. It’s an utter masterpiece and I could not stop reading/listening.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Epic/

The creative use of language served as an emotional hook. It was a universal story that hit home especially in these precarious political days.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Superior novel, masterly written, hugely insightful

The masterful writing and insight into humanity. It is small wonder this book won the Booker Prize.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

How realistic it was.

The depiction of each character — believable people, and the small details, so that you felt you were there..

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Scary, sad but phenomenal

Beautiful and tragic. I was left gutted and in awe by this book. An absolute must read.

My only criticism would be the narrator. He did a fantastic job, but choosing a male narrator was an odd choice to me.

Read it or listen to it next. You won’t be disappointed.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent, deeply disturbing, painful

This book engenders compassion for all war torn or oppressed people
It is very dark

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Could not stop listening

Scary and brilliant and beautifully written. I hesitated to listen to it, because I had heard that it was quite dark. Don’t let that stop you, it’s awesome.

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9 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Authentic & Gripping Cautionary Tale

A compelling and wrenching story of events that occur in a civilized first nation, when an authoritarian coup succeeds in overthrowing a democratic state. There was never a moment in this novel when I thought, “oh, that wouldn’t happen.” Indeed, the events and character choices were never sensationalized for literary effect, but instead seemed utterly authentic. Anyone who pays attention to our current state of the world, should put this novel on their list.

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8 people found this helpful