Irish author Paul Lynch’s ‘Prophet Song’ was named the winner of the Booker Prize 2023.

Lynch received his trophy and £50,000 from Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka, last year’s Booker winner for ‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’, at the awards ceremony held at Old Billingsgate in London.

Who is Paul Lynch?

​• Paul Lynch was born in Limerick in 1977 and lives in Dublin. He was previously the chief film critic of Ireland’s Sunday Tribune newspaper from 2007 to 2011 and wrote regularly for the Sunday Times on cinema.  

• He is an internationally acclaimed Irish novelist who has published five novels, winning several awards in the process. Before ‘Prophet Song’, Lynch wrote ‘Beyond the Sea’, ‘Grace’, ‘The Black Snow’ and ‘Red Sky in Morning’. 

• Paul Lynch, 46, is the fifth Irish author to win the Booker Prize, after Iris Murdoch, John Banville, Roddy Doyle and Anne Enright. The Northern Irish writer Anna Burns won in 2018.

What is ‘Prophet Song’ about?

• Lynch won for his novel presenting a dystopian vision of Ireland in the grips of totalitarianism. Set in Dublin, ‘Prophet Song’ tells the story of a family grappling with a terrifying new world in which the democratic norms they are used to begin to disappear.

• The book captures some of the biggest social and political anxieties of our age, from the rise of political extremism to the global plight of refugees.

• Ireland is in the grip of a government that is taking a turn towards tyranny and Eilish Stack, the novel’s protagonist, soon finds herself trying to make sense of the nightmare of a collapsing society – assailed by unpredictable forces beyond her control and desperate to do whatever it takes to keep her family together. 

Other books in the shortlist:

• The Bee Sting - by Paul Murray

• If I Survive You - by Jonathan Escoffery

• Western Lane - by Chetna Maroo

• This Other Eden - by Paul Harding

• Study for Obedience - by Sarah Bernstein.

The Booker Prize

• The Booker Prize awards any work of long form fiction originally written in English and published in the UK and Ireland in the year of the prize, regardless of the nationality of their author. The work of long form fiction must be an original work in English (not a translation) and published by a registered UK or Irish imprint. Self-published works of long form fiction are not eligible. 

• The Booker Prize is worth £50,000 to the winner. It is awarded to the author of the best, eligible full-length work of long form fiction in the opinion of the judges. In addition, £2,500 is awarded to each of the six shortlisted authors.

• The Booker Prize for Fiction was first awarded in 1969.

• Past winners of the Booker include Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie and Yann Martel.

International Booker Prize

• The International Booker Prize, formerly known as the Man Booker International Prize, has been awarded since 2005, when it was won by Albanian writer Ismail Kadare.

• It is awarded annually for a single book, translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. 

• It is a sister prize to the Booker Prize.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store