Name: Doug Belshaw's review of Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
Item: Prophet Song
Rating: 5
Author: Doug Belshaw

Paul Lynch

'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 An Irish Times 'Book to Look Forward to in 2023' A fearless portrait of a society on the brink as a mother faces a terrible choice, from an internationally award-winning author 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.

Prophet Song

Doug Belshaw

Frederik De Bosschere

This was horrifying. Writing was superb and added to the tension and claustrophobia that mounted as the book progressed. 

Sarah Erle

Milly Schmidt

“…and she can see that the world does not end, that it is vanity to think the world will end during your lifetime in some sudden event, that what ends is your life and only your life, that what is sung by the prophets is but the same song sung across time, the coming of the sword, the world devoured by fire, the sun gone down into the earth at noon and the world cast in darkness, the fury of some god incarnate in the mouth of the prophet raging at the wickedness that will be cast out of sight, and the prophet sings not of the end of the world but of what has been done and what will be done and what is being done to some but not others, that the world is always ending over and over again in one place but not another and that the end of the world is always a local event, it comes to “she sees how she has fallen afoul of herself and grows aghast, seeing that out of terror comes pity and out of pity comes love and out of love the world can be redeemed again, and she can see that the world does not end, that it is vanity to think the world will end during your lifetime in some sudden event, that what ends is your life and only your life, that what is sung by the prophets is but the same song sung across time, the coming of the sword, the world devoured by fire, the sun gone down into the earth at noon and the world cast in darkness, the fury of some god incarnate in the mouth of the prophet raging at the wickedness that will be cast out of sight, and the prophet sings not of the end of the world but of what has been done and what will be done and what is being done to some but not others, that the world is always ending over and over again in one place but not another…” broke me

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, Larry, a trade unionist for the Teachers' Union of Ireland. 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. Exhilarating, terrifying, propulsive and confrontational, Prophet Song is a work of breathtaking originality and devastating insight, a novel that can be read as a parable of the present, the future and the past.

Mat Connor

Booker Winner 2023. I kept putting this one off for a couple reasons. 

First, because the premise--a family trying to survive as Ireland quickly devolves into totalitarianism--is something you have to be in the right mood to read. This is one of the most depressing books I've read in a long time. It's like being stuck in a nightmare.

Second, it just looked annoying to read. There are no paragraph breaks, including for dialogue. Thankfully you get used to this quickly and I always found it easy to tell who is talking. Lynch clearly uses this style to give off a sense of claustrophobia and breathless panic. I think it worked well.

I've seen this book get some criticism for never explaining why Ireland becomes a totalitarian state. That never bothered me and I agree with Lynch's choice there. If he had spent a lot of time explaining why Ireland's political structure was falling apart, people would have probably just said "That's not realistic." Lynch's goal is to make you experience what it might feel like to be in a nightmarish society falling apart at the seams. The smartest line in the book was when Molly (the protagonist) notes that "we are now TV for the rest of the world." 

I nearly gave this 5 stars and might in the future if the book lingers with me. My main reason for dropping to a 4 is that sometimes I felt that Lynch was explaining the character's emotions a little too much. It was like he didn't always trust the reader to understand how the character was feeling. Show Don't Tell is a cliché and lots of great authors tell a lot, but that's sort of how I felt. Lynch likes peppering in lots of metaphors and I found some of them kind of clumsy:

"…she closes her eyes and cannot think what to do, the heart has grown too sick for thinking, the heart now in a cage”

“She is no longer of the street but has entered into some part of herself where she is absolute, carrying a sword in her mouth,”

“This sudden sorrow as she climbs the stairs, seeing how time is not some horizontal plane but a vertical plummet towards the ground.”

It all started to read like bad Cormac McCarthy to me. Lynch is clearly a talented writer I just wish he would have let some of the moments breathe a little more and trust his readers to understand the horror they are reading.

Side Note: As a Canadian, it was nice to see Canada mentioned as a place to escape to. It feels like Canada is often mentioned in these dystopian books as the place where you can escape the nightmare. I hope we never lose that. Sometimes when I see how ugly Canada's political discourse has become in recent years I wonder if that reputation is at risk.

           Until now in the year 2024, this is the best book I've read that had moved me emotionally at many places / pages. 

      For most of us war is just a news item and we really can not comprehend the damage it does to people, society, future generations in immense no.of ways. All that is very very nicely detailed in this novel. Author initiates the story with how a regime / dictatorship starts to take control of state  or  country and slowly what kind of turns / worst shape it takes. Things like people disappearing and minors getting recruited into Military, taking full control of cities, citizen records, civil unrest, streets being vandalised, inflation, black market trade, no schools, scarcity of food and water also other necessities and much more. 

         If we go into the story, many paragraphs in initial chapters tells exactly what is happening in Today's India. Those paragraphs in that sense are timeless because what author wrote there will keep happening at one or the other country at any point of time. For example this is one such sentence - 

They've gone too far now, Eilish, the mood of civil unrest is growing though you'll not hear that on the news, the NAP want to turn this country into a security state

         At the end of 8th chapter when Eilish Stack finds her son in morgue tortured brutally and killed by regime - and the way author detailed it literally made me cry. Such an amazing way to run a story, I couldn't keep the book down. 

      As the novel draws to conclusion, even with unbearable darkness and lifelessnes of people with all that is happening to them in their own country, it ends in a positive note giving them hope to look forward for beautiful Tomorrow. 

SUCH A GREAT WRITING. I can't appreciate it enough. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Rajesh

           Until now in the year 2024, this is the best book I've read that had moved me emotionally at many places / pages. 

      For most of us war is just a news item and we really can not comprehend the damage it does to people, society, future generations in immense no.of ways. All that is very very nicely detailed in this novel. Author initiates the story with how a regime / dictatorship starts to take control of state  or  country and slowly what kind of turns / worst shape it takes. Things like people disappearing and minors getting recruited into Military, taking full control of cities, citizen records, civil unrest, streets being vandalised, inflation, black market trade, no schools, scarcity of food and water also other necessities and much more. 

         If we go into the story, many paragraphs in initial chapters tells exactly what is happening in Today's India. Those paragraphs in that sense are timeless because what author wrote there will keep happening at one or the other country at any point of time. For example this is one such sentence - They've gone too far now, Eilish, the mood of civil unrest is growing though you'll not hear that on the news, the NAP want to turn this country into a security state.

         At the end of 8th chapter when Eilish Stack finds her son in morgue tortured brutally and killed by regime - and the way author detailed it literally made me cry. Such an amazing way to run a story, I couldn't keep the book down. 

      As the novel draws to conclusion, even with unbearable darkness and lifelessnes of people with all that is happening to them in their own country, it ends in a positive note giving them hope to look forward for beautiful Tomorrow. 

SUCH A GREAT WRITING. I can't appreciate it enough. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Jordan Dodsworth

Brutal. The atmosphere the author creates had me on edge throughout. I think it benefitted from reading over a short period in a few big chunks.

There was a point where I had to put this book down for a while and give myself some space to sit with what happened. I doubt that will be a feeling I forget any time soon.

Emma Cragg

Brutal. The atmosphere the author creates had me on edge throughout. I think it benefitted from reading over a short period in a few big chunks.

There was a point where I had to put this book down for a while and give myself some space to sit with what happened. I doubt that will be a feeling I forget any time soon.

Words like 'dark' and 'bleak' don't do this book justice. It's the story of layers and layers of despair - in particular, a mother's despair - caused by war. 

It's written in an unusual but highly appropriate style, with sections feeling like a fever dream. Massive trigger warnings etc. As a parent, there's one bit towards the end which I think will haunt me for years to come.

An incredible read. Not an enjoyable one.

Words like 'dark' and 'bleak' don't do this book justice. It's the story of layers and layers of despair - in particular, a mother's despair - caused by war. 

It's written in an unusual but highly appropriate style, with sections feeling like a fever dream. Massive trigger warnings etc. As a parent, there's one bit towards the end which I think will haunt me for years to come.

An incredible read. Not an enjoyable one.

Doug Belshaw &
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

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Prophet Song by Paul Lynch