‘Not an easy book to write’

Irish novelist Paul Lynch, who won the acclaimed Booker Prize 2003 for his dystopian novel Prophet Song, has said it was ‘not an easy book to write’. The novel, which is the author’s fifth has received acclaim from critics and tells the tale of a tyrannical government. It entails a dystopian Irish society following protagonist Eilish Stack navigating her way through this new political landscape. He began writing the novel shortly after his son Elliot was born and finished it four years later.

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“This was not an easy book to write, the rational part of me believed I was dooming my career by writing this novel though I had to write the book anyway; we do not have a choice in such matters,” he said in his acceptance speech. The author who is proud of his Irish heritage continued, “It is with immense pleasure that I bring the booker home to Ireland”. Lynch became the fifth Irish writer to win the prestigious award after Anna Burns was awarded in 2018 for her novel, Milkman. Beyond the Sea, Grace, The Black Snow and Red Sky in Morning are predecessors to Lynch’s recent novel.

While for Grace Lynch won the 2018 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year and the 2020 Ireland Francophonie Ambassadors’ Literary awards, his second novel, The Black Snow, won France’s bookseller prize, Prix Libr’a Nous for Best Foreign Novel.

During his acceptance speech, Lynch also said, “I want to thank the Booker jury for reading so many books in such a short time”. He gave credit to numerous people who aided him with his book, including his agent and children. “All the children of this world who need our protection yet continue to live through the terrors depicted in this book, thank you for opening our eyes to innocence so that we may know the world again as though for the first time,” Lynch said.