‘Prophet Song’ by exiles from civil war in a totalitarian state wins the Booker Prize
‘Prophet Song’, which depicts international indifference toward exiles from civil wars in totalitarian countries, has been selected as the winner of the Booker Prize.
<Prophet Song>, the fifth work by Paul Lynch, a writer from Ireland, a region in long-standing conflict with Britain, was announced as the winner on the 27th.
Booker Prize jury chairman Esi Edugyan (novelist) said at a press conference, "Although The Song of the Prophet resonated with contemporary crises, including the Israel-Hamas war, the novel won solely on its literary merits." “This is a triumph of courage and bravery through emotional storytelling.”
“The judges were unable to reach a unanimous decision even after six hours of discussion,” said Jury President Eduyan. “Nevertheless, the panel judged Song of the Prophets to be a worthy winner that ‘captures the social and political anxieties of our time.’ “I felt that,” he said, explaining the reason for deciding on the award-winning work.
Fully Lynch, who was selected as the winner, said that when he began writing his award-winning work, Song of the Prophets, he was “thinking about the long civil war in Syria and the West’s apparent indifference to those fleeing the conflict.”
Lynch, 46, a former film critic, made his 2013 debut feature Red Sky in the Morning, set in the 19th century and telling the story of an Irishman who flees to the United States after murdering a man.
The award-winning work <Song of the Prophet> is scheduled to be published in North America by the publisher ‘Grove Atlantic’.
On the homepage of Grove Atlantic, an independent publisher, “Prophet Song, a finalist for the 2023 Booker Prize, presents a frightening and suspenseful vision of an Ireland that is heading toward authoritarianism.”
About Paul Lynch, Atlantic Publishing publishes the novels “Red Sky in Morning,” “The Black Snow,” “Grace,” and “Beyond the Sea.” <Grace> won the 2018 Kerry Group Irish Novel Award and was also a finalist for the 2018 Walter Scott Historical Novel Award and the William Saroyan International Literary Award.
His The Black Eye won France's Best Foreign Novel category and was a finalist for the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger for Best Foreign Book. He currently lives in Dublin with his wife and two children.
Paul Lynch's official website states that he is the author of five novels and won the 2018 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award.
His debut novel, Red Sky in the Morning, received critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic in 2013.
This book was selected as 'Amazon.com Book of the Month' in the United States, was featured on NPR's All Things Considered, and was featured in The Irish Times, The Toronto Star, The Irish Independent, It was selected as ‘Book of the Year’ by the Sunday Business Post.
<Black Eyes> (2014) was selected as the Amazon.com Book of the Month and won the Best Foreign Novel Award and the Prix des Lecteurs Privat from the French bookstore Prix Libr'à Nous.
The work was nominated for the Prix Femina and Prix du Roman Fnac (Fnac Novel Prize), and was described as "a masterpiece" by The Sunday Times and "fierce and surprising" by The Toronto Star.
In addition to <Song of the Prophet>, works that were selected for the award included Paul Murray's <The Bee Sting>, Chetna Maru's <Western Lane>, and Paul Harding's <This Other Eden>. The New York Times announced on the 27th that the other novels are Jonathan Escoffee's <If I Survive You> and Sarah Bernstein's <A Study in Obedience>.
The Booker Prize carries a prize of 50,000 pounds ($63,000) and is awarded annually to the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland.
Established in 1969, the award has included literary giants such as Hilary Mantel, Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood.
Last year, Sri Lankan novelist Shehan Karunatilaka won the Booker Prize for her novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, which dealt with the trauma of the Sri Lankan civil war.