2023-11-27 09:55:37
The 46-year-old novelist made a name for himself with the dystopian novel Prophet Song, which sees Ireland slide into tyranny through the eyes of a mother.
The prestigious British literary prize Booker Prize was awarded to Irish author Paul Lynch for his dystopian novel Prophet Song at a ceremony on Sunday evening in London.
The novelist, who was selected for the first time, was rewarded for his fifth novel, a dark and distressing story of the life of a mother in an Ireland which is falling into tyranny.
“This book wasn’t easy to write. Part of me thought I was going to jeopardize my career by writing it – but I still had to see it through,” Paul Lynch said after his victory, making shares his “immense pleasure in bringing the Booker back to Ireland”.
The Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, which rewards works of fiction in English, has contributed to the success of writers like Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Arundhati Roy.
All of the novelists selected this year – two Americans, a Canadian, two Irish and a Kenyan-born writer – were part of the final selection for the first time. The winner receives a reward of 50,000 pounds (around 57,000 euros) and the assurance of international success.
Confinement novel
Paul Lynch partly wrote Prophet Song, a claustrophobic novel with blocks of text running over entire pages, during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns.
But the disturbing idea of a curfew and the arrival of a virus had already occurred to him before, he assured during a press conference, “so it was very strange to see happen. produce in real life.
Her novel tells how the life of Eilish Stack, mother of four children who resides in Dublin at an undefined time, is turned upside down with the disappearance of her husband, wanted by the new secret police. She then seeks to preserve the unity of her family, while around her her country takes the path of tyranny. Born in Limerick in 1977, Paul Lynch is the fifth Irishman to win this award. He lives in Dublin and has already written the acclaimed Beyond The Sea and Grace.
Troubled social times
Asked about the far-right riots that shook Ireland a few days earlier after a stabbing attack, the writer said he was “stunned”, although admitting that “that kind of energy is still there, present beneath the surface”.
His book is “not a prophetic statement,” he insisted, but “there are resonances (with reality) for readers who want to think about it.”
A “shattering” book full of “warnings”
“With great vivacity, Prophet Song captures the social and political anxieties of our time,” said Canadian novelist Esi Edugyan, who chaired the jury.
“Readers will find it moving and true, they will not soon forget the warnings it contains,” she assured.
A total of 158 books published in the UK or Ireland between October 1, 2022 and September 30, 2023 were submitted, with 13 of these selected in a first round.
Rich and diverse vintage
Other novels selected included Kenyan-born writer Chetna Maroo’s moving debut work, Western Lane, the story of a teenage squash enthusiast who loses herself in the sport while grieving.
The tragicomic saga The Bee Sting, by Irishman Paul Murray, studies the influence of destiny in the economic and existential difficulties of an Irish family.
If I Survive You by American writer Jonathan Escoffery also tells the story of a Jamaican family who leaves Kingston and must rebuild their lives in Miami in the 1970s.
The work of the other American in the running Paul Harding, This Other Eden, is inspired by historical events and relates the life of marginalized people on Apple Island, off the American coast, under the suspicious eye and increasing constraint authorities.
The disturbing Study for Obedience, by Canadian Sarah Bernstein, is a questioning of power and guilt, around the story of a young woman who leaves to take care of her older brother, and faces a series of disturbing events.
Last year, Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka won the Booker Prize for his novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, a story of murder with black humor during the civil war which ravaged the country in the 1990s.
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