Dante Readline reviewed Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
No fun!
4 stars
Story of Ireland falling to fascism. There's no epic heroes or great speeches, just a slow crushing realism of a family life falling apart.
Hardcover
English language
Published Aug. 8, 2023 by Oneworld Publications.
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, Larry, 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. Soon, she must decide just how far she is willing to go to keep her family safe.
Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Paul Lynch's Booker Prize-winning novel is a devastating vision of a country falling apart and a moving portrait of the resilience of the human spirit when faced with the darkest of times.
Story of Ireland falling to fascism. There's no epic heroes or great speeches, just a slow crushing realism of a family life falling apart.
A nightmare in book form. I could only read for an hour at a time.
How a contemporary western state can collapse from the perspective of an Irish middle class family.
Deserves every prize, compulsory reading.
Categorise with Atwood.
Experience the relentless whirlwind of life-changing events. As glimpsed only on the sanitised evening news if you're lucky! Devastatingly perceptive. Prepare for the emotional impact. The wind from your lungs.