International prize-winning author Paul Lynch has won one of literature’s most prestigious competitions – the Booker Prize.
Lynch, who grew up in Carndonagh, topped the Booker’s 2023 list with his fifth novel, Prophet Song and scooped €50,000 in prize-money.
The Booker Prize is the leading accolade for long-form fiction in the UK.
Lynch became the fifth Irish writer to win the Booker Prize.
Born in Limerick, Lynch grew up in Inishowen and later moved to Dublin where he lives with his wife and children.
He was previously the chief film critic of Ireland’s Sunday Tribune newspaper from 2007 to 2011, and wrote regularly for The Sunday Times on film. He is now a full-time novelist.
His debut novel, Red Sky in Morning, was set against the backdrops of north Donegal and Pennsylvania.
Prophet Song, released on 24th August, is set in Dublin. The book is described as a “fearless portrait of a society on the brink and a mother’s battle to save her family”.
The Booker Prize judges’ praise for the book said: “Paul Lynch’s harrowing and dystopian Prophet Song vividly renders a mother’s determination to protect her family as Ireland’s liberal democracy slides inexorably and terrifyingly into totalitarianism. Readers will find it timely and unforgettable. It’s a remarkable accomplishment for a novelist to capture the social and political anxieties of our moment so compellingly.”
Chair of the judges panel, Esi Edugyan, who herself was twice shortlisted for the Booker, described the work as “astonishing” and “soul shattering” and that readers “will not soon forget its warnings”.
“Lynch pulls off feats of language that are stunning to witness. He has the heart of a poet, using repetition and recurring motifs to create a visceral reading experience. This is a triumph of emotional storytelling, bracing and brave,” she said.
‘Prophet Song’ won out of an original field of 163 books and beat off another highly fancied Irish book ‘The Bee Sting’ by Paul Murray which was also considered to be in the running.
