“Deeply harrowing . . . An extraordinary achievement.”—Highbrow Magazine

“As nightmarish a story as you’ll come across: powerful, claustrophobic and horribly real. From its opening pages it exerts a grim kind of grip; even when approached cautiously and read in short bursts it somehow lingers, its world leaking out from its pages like black ink into clear water.”—Guardian, Book of the Day

“A masterclass in empathy, offering a bird’s eye view of the steady crushing of one’s ability to live somewhere safely, the dismantling of ordinary life by tyranny. I hope everyone reads this.”—Suzanne Harrington, The Irish Examiner

“Utterly believable . . . compassionate, propulsive and timely.”—Financial Times (UK)

“Chillingly plausible.”—Irish Times

“A tremendous achievement.”—Irish Examiner

“Lynch does an excellent job of showing just how swiftly — and plausibly — a society like ours could collapse. Certain sequences read like a thriller — readers will find themselves literally holding their breath — while others are rendered in beautiful, lyrical prose . . . A devastating portrait.”—Independent (IE)

“In his typically lyrical, lulling style, Lynch pulls off a masterstroke.”—Big Issue

“A book of encroaching terror… Darkly lyrical, rich . . . affecting”—Telegraph (UK)

“Timely and unforgettable . . . It’s a remarkable accomplishment for a novelist to capture the social and political anxieties of our moment so compellingly.”—The Booker Prize 2023 judges

“Stunning in every sense of the word . . . In masterfully controlled and powerful prose, [Lynch] yanks the reader headlong into the experience of living in a country that is taken over by an authoritarian government — slowly, slowly, and then suddenly and completely . . . Prophet Song is a brilliant, disturbing reality check. Lynch insists that we understand ‘the end of the world is always a local event.’”—Tampa Bay Times

“Prophet Song is . . . a horror story, with the new political order serving as the monster now inside the house . . . This is not a book that presents political oppression as an intellectual problem to be anticipated or solved. It aims for the limbic system, and it does not miss.”—Los Angeles Times

“Astonishing  . . . A harrowing must-read.”—Center for Fiction

“A speedboat of a novel that hurtles the reader through ever-heightening waves toward a dark shore, a stark vision of total societal breakdown . . . Lynch understands that totalitarianism doesn’t simply storm into power; all too often it creeps in.”—BookBrowse

“A disquieting novel from an exceptional writer.”—Crossville Chronicle

“As illuminating and haunting as any real-life history of descent into authoritarianism.”—The Week

“Lynch’s novel is full of dread, but it’s neither hopeless nor nihilistic. For in focusing the novel on the commitment of a dedicated mother, he invites the reader to dwell in the path of the propulsive wonder of love, an experience that is, in its finest moments, downright awe-inspiring.”—World

“In this chilling, Booker Prize-winning novel, author Paul Lynch takes us inside the slowly-unfolding nightmare that is his protagonist Eilish’s mind . . . The personal and public atrocities mount up and we readers see them happen as Eilish does and we cannot look away or un-see them . . . A great novel, well deserving of the praise and awards.”—Enchanted Circle

“A superb novel . . . one of the best I’ve read in years.”—Deadly Pleasures

“A novel that allows darkness a corporeal form—something that breaches thresholds and follows.”—The Wire

“I haven’t read a book that has shaken me so intensely in many years . . . The comparisons are inevitable – Saramago, Orwell, McCarthy – but this novel will stand entirely on its own.”—Colum McCann, author of Apeirogon

“Surely one of the most important novels of this decade.”—Ron Rash, author of Serena

“Monumental . . . you remember why fiction matters. It’s hard to recall a more powerful novel in recent years.”—Samantha Harvey, author of The Western Wind

“The work of a master novelist, Prophet Song is a stunning, midnight vision whose themes are at once ancient and all too timely: fear, complicity, resistance, and what becomes of us when hell rises to our homeland.”—Rob Doyle, author of Threshold

“It was gripping and chilling, and terribly prescient – a novel with a darkly important message about this particular moment in time.”—Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither

“Part cautionary-tale; part dystopian-nightmare; part fever dream. Whichever way you skin it, there is no denying the gathering power of Paul Lynch’s writing. This is at once fearless and affecting prose with a ticking clock inevitability and a clanging bell pay-off. Both urgent jolt and slow furnace, Prophet Song takes you to the edge of the chasm and insists that you look down. A masterclass in terror and dread.”—Alan McMonagle, author of Ithaca

6. Many critics and reviewers have characterized Prophet Song as an example of dystopian literature, but is this accurate? Consider the ways in which the book transcends the boundaries of conventional dystopian novels. Why might it be wrong—or at least imprecise—to categorize the novel as dystopian or speculative?

7. Explore the imagery of the novel. What recurring images become motifs? How, for instance, does Lynch employ descriptions of light and darkness or the natural world to support the themes of the book and draw us closer to the characters? How does he utilize contrasting imagery? In Chapter 1 Larry watches Eilish breastfeeding Ben and sees the scene as “a sense of life contracted to an image so at odds with malice” (4). How do these juxtapositions allow, for example, the author to underscore the chaos of the time or, alternatively, to illuminate that which endures?

8. How does Prophet Song create a dialogue around memory and the passage of time? Does the book ever answer the question of how our personal histories and our collective history are influenced by both? Is personal or collective memory reliable? How do the various characters in the novel relate to their own distant and not-so-distant but shattered pasts?

9. In Chapter 2 Bailey asks Eilish when his father will be coming back and Eilish responds by lying to her son: “I’ve told you, love, he had to go away for work” (33). Do you think that she made the right choice? Why does she do this and how does her decision affect their relationship? How does this scene serve as an introduction to a more expansive meditation on the intermingled themes of truth and deception?

10. In Chapter 7 Eilish recognizes that “she has lied to herself about so many things” (235). What are some of the things that she has lied to herself about and what do you think allows her to reach this conclusion? Were you surprised that her realization came so late in the day? Why or why not?

11. How does the novel explore themes of complicity and silence? Who in the book would you say is complicit? Who speaks up and who remains silent? Eilish demands to know “why has nobody shouted stop?” (36) Does the book ultimately answer this question?

12. In Chapter 5 Carole points out that for those in charge “the silence is the source of their power” (165). What does she mean by this? How is silence used by those in power to create an atmosphere of fear that leads to greater control? How do the characters in the book resist or otherwise push back against this?

13. How does Prophet Song propose a reorientation of our way of looking at the ordinary and the mundane? What, for instance, does the novel reveal about the banality of evil or that which “hides in the humdrum” (43)?

14. “History is a silent record of people who did not know when to leave” (103), Eilish’s sister warns, but at the novel’s conclusion how would you respond to this? Why do people like Gerry Brennan and Mrs. Gaffney stay? Why does Eilish hesitate to leave despite the chaos and violence around her?

15. How does the novel paint a complex portrait of grief—its varieties and complexities? Who in the book is grieving and what causes them to do so? How does each character attempt to cope with their grief ? Does the book ultimately seem to offer any insight into how we might help ourselves and others in the presence of grief ?

16. What does the book reveal to readers about human dignity? How, for instance, does Eilish maintain her own sense of dignity throughout the story? Were you surprised by this? Why might this have been so important to her?

17. Molly observes: “if you want to give war its proper name, call it entertainment, we are now TV for the rest of the world” (160). Where else do readers find the book challenging the way we think about wars and unjust events that occur outside of our own country—our complicity or our complacency?

18. “I used to believe in free will, if you had asked me before all of this I would have told you I was free as a bird, but now I’m not so sure,” Mona tells Eilish (302). What does Prophet Song have to say about agency and free will? Does such a thing exist? Do the characters of Prophet Song have free will or are they simply batted around by chance or fate? How do they attempt to maintain and exert their will? Are any of them successful in this?

19. Revisit the last line of the book. Did you find Eilish’s final choice surprising? Why or why not? How does the story ultimately work as an equation that wends its way towards proof of what is contained in the last line—and the inevitability of Eilish’s ultimate decision?

20. At the story’s conclusion, what is the eponymous phrase prophet song meant to signal to us about our assumptions of apocalypse and the world’s end? According to the author, of what does the prophet sing? What does Lynch mean when he writes of Eilish looking to the sky and seeing only “the world insisting on itself ” (303)?