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Paul Lynch after being announced the winner of the Booker Prize Associated Press/Alamy Stock Photo

Irish author Paul Lynch wins 2023 Booker Prize for Prophet Song

“It is with immense pleasure that I bring the Booker home to Ireland,” the winning author told the event.

IRISH AUTHOR PAUL Lynch has won the 2023 Booker Prize for Prophet Song.

The 46-year-old, who lives in Dublin, was presented with his trophy by last year’s winner Shehan Karunatilaka, at a ceremony held at Old Billingsgate, London tonight. 

Lynch told the event: “Well, there goes my hard won anonymity. 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.”

Lynch also thanked “all the children of this world who need our protection, yet have lived, and continue to live through the terrors depicted in this book”.

He added: “Thank you for opening our eyes to innocence. So that we may know the world again as though for the first time.

It is with immense pleasure that I bring the Booker home to Ireland.

He is the sixth Irish author to win the award, worth £50,000, following Dame Iris Murdoch, John Banville, Roddy Doyle, Anna Burns and Anne Enright.

According to the Booker Prize, each year, the prize is awarded to what is, in the opinion of the judges, the best sustained work of fiction written in English and published in the UK and Ireland.

Speeches

The event on Sunday had a keynote speech delivered by Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was released from a prison in Iran last year.

Lynch’s fifth novel Prophet Song – which is a tale of a tyrannical government – is about a mother-of-four working as a scientist whose husband is taken away by the newly formed Irish secret police.

Canadian novelist Esi Edugyan, chairwoman of the 2023 judges and a previous Booker-shortlisted author, called the tale “a triumph of emotional storytelling, bracing and brave”.

“With great vividness, Prophet Song captures the social and political anxieties of our current moment,” she said.

“Readers will find it soul-shattering and true, and will not soon forget its warnings.”

Judging 

She was asked during a press call if the judges had considered recent events in Dublin, where after a knife attack on children, there followed a series of violent disturbances.

Edugyan said that it was “mentioned at some point” when the book was chosen on Saturday.

“I really have to stress that, that was not the reason that Prophet Song won the prize, (and) that we weren’t sort of … taking our cue … from world events in such a direct fashion. I think it would have done a great disservice to the (prize),” she added.

Edugyan also said the judges felt that it would “have massive impact, that it would outlast this age”.

The violence in the Irish capital, which involved far-right elements, on Thursday saw Garda cars, buses and trams set alight, and shops looted and damaged.

The judges also included Peep Show actor Robert Webb, Bridgerton actress Adjoa Andoh, poet and critic Mary Jean Chan and James Shapiro, a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University.

During the ceremony, Andoh also read an extract from the 1990 Booker Prize-winning novel Possession, in honour of British author AS Byatt, who died earlier this month at the age of 87.

Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, said: “The judges established at the start of the final meeting that any of the six books on the shortlist would be a worthy winner.

“Prophet Song is composed of masterful sentences, and packs a profound emotional punch.”

Lynch told the PA news agency in September that the book did not have to be a warning about authoritarianism as “it’s actually already occurring”.

He said: “What informs this book is the sense of liberal democratic slide that’s been ongoing around the world for the past six, eight years, perhaps 10 years?

“It was the sense of unravelling that so many of us have just been tuning into and feeling anxious about the thought that could this happen here? No, it couldn’t but yet, there are so many countries around the world where they thought the very same thing.”

Irish nominees

Lynch also beat fellow Irish writer Paul Murray, who was shortlisted for The Bee Sting, which follows an Irish family facing financial and emotional troubles.

All of the shortlisted authors – which also include British author Chetna Maroo, American novelist Jonathan Escoffery, Canadian author Sarah Bernstein and US author Paul Harding – received £2,500 and a bespoke bound edition of their book.

Margaret Atwood, Dame Hilary Mantel and Sir Salman Rushdie are among previous Booker winners.

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    Mute CAPITAINE ADEBAYO
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    Jun 6th 2014, 11:39 AM

    Fun Bayo fact!

    Emmet is Denis O’Briens nephew.

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    Mute Jason Bourne
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    Jun 6th 2014, 11:59 AM

    500 acres… jesus christ on a golf course.

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    Mute Richard Rodgers
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    Jun 6th 2014, 1:06 PM

    Jason
    Should we confiscate the land and turn it I to plots for the locals to farm? We could also rent out room in the Main House for family use and turn the entire into a tenement . Yahoo ….here comes Sinn Fein.

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    Mute seamus mcdermott
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    Jun 6th 2014, 3:43 PM

    Sorry you’re feeling so terribly stung by SF successes in the recent elections. Must be hard for you to face those facts.

    Boo!
    (did someone say Sinn Fein!?!?!?)

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    Mute Brian O' Brien
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    Jun 7th 2014, 10:20 PM

    Didn’t clean the boards like was expected. Maybe people Are still thinking about the past.

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    Mute Tony Tee
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    Jun 6th 2014, 12:44 PM

    Businessman Emmet O’Neill = Uncle Denis’s favourite little soldier….if your a good boy Emmet you can play in The Beacon Hospital too.

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    Mute James Murphy
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    Jun 6th 2014, 6:20 PM

    What does been Denis O’Brien nephew got to do with the sale… Emmet O’Neill is a millionaire in his own right…He sold his company Smiles Dental sold for €36m

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    Mute Gerard Cooney
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    Jun 6th 2014, 6:59 PM

    We are open to free comit any one that wishes to take a minute to tell what you have to say don’t be afraid just jump on with a few words talking about the flora a fans up have out on your door step and respect it for what it is look Natively
    Anyone wishing to get involved with the next venture either or man’s line is 0893324090

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    Mute Richard Cynical
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    Jun 6th 2014, 11:33 AM

    They over paid

    #mygafisbetter

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    Mute Cpm
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    Jun 6th 2014, 1:06 PM

    Why are you using hash tags?

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    Mute Gerard Cooney
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    Jun 6th 2014, 6:34 PM

    We can lol its Friday night and anything goed

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    Mute Gerard Cooney
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    Jun 6th 2014, 6:38 PM

    Jibaddahud how many seconds can you lip a pint of your ?????

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    Mute Owen Mc Dermott
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    Jun 7th 2014, 9:25 AM

    Hashtags are cool!

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    Mute Evelyn Byrne
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    Jun 6th 2014, 6:32 PM

    Emmet O’Neill is a successful businessman in his own right Denis O’Brien is nothing to do with it!

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    Mute Gerard Cooney
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    Jun 6th 2014, 6:33 PM

    I can tell ye all Mount Juliette is the one and only course that I have ever watch a Irish Open and played the great 3 times after and will say this is a world class golf course and facilities will compete with the likes of many a great venue we have to offer Mount Juliette / €€€€€ we will earn the right to the next Rider c u p
    And Paul Mc Ginley will lead the__€€€€$///////ok team__to The we in o ve r y uo gr so

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    Mute Jennifer Byrne
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    Nov 2nd 2014, 10:56 PM

    does anyone know the early history of the house, The Byrne family worked there when the McCalmont family owned it as my ancester was groom to their racehorse The Tetrach early in 1900′s.

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    Mute Owen Mc Dermott
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    Jun 7th 2014, 9:27 AM

    It would make a nice homeless shelter for the poor unfortunates of Kilkenny. Oh I forgot, everyone in Kilkenny is unfortunate, sorry!

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    Mute Owen Mc Dermott
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    Jun 7th 2014, 9:24 AM

    Nice crib!

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