This year (2023), the world-renowned Booker Prize was awarded to Irish writer, Paul Lynch’s novel, The Prophet Song.
At the 2023 Booker Award ceremony held last night (26) in Billingsgate, London, Prophet Song was awarded among six works selected for the final round, and the winner was awarded 50,000 pounds in cash. The award was presented to him by Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunathilake, who won the Booker Award last year (2022).
The selection of Paul Lynch’s work among the other works selected for the final round created a very challenging situation for the jury, and the winning work was selected after several rounds of discussion exceeding six hours, said the chief judge of the jury, AC Edugan.
Irish writer Paul Murari’s The Bee Sting, Kenyan Chetna Maro’s Western Lane, American Paul Harding’s This Other Eden, Jonathan Escoffery’s If I Survive You, and Sarah Bernstein’s Study for Obedience are the other five novels recommended in the final round as works that carry ideas as important as the winning work.
Paul Lynch said that he was inspired to write the novel by the Syrian war and the refugee crisis. Lynch said in a conversation with France 24 that he has spent four years finishing his fifth novel.
The channel calls Prophet Song ‘Lynch’s fifth novel, a timely book that captures the social and political anxieties of our time and is realistically narrated’. The channel also points out that the writer’s writings are very similar to the recent riots in Dublin. It also states that the ‘Prophet’s Song’ resonates with the violence in Palestine, Ukraine, and Syria and the experiences of all those fleeing war-torn countries.
Before writing Prophet Song, Lynch’s published Beyond the Sea, Grace, The Black Snow, and Red Sky in the Morning. All these won many popular literary awards.