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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.
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.”
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.”
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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i didnt think it possible that there are still soooooo many stupid people out there…..peoples…..u dont pay fines online or sign up to help someone claim 200 billion dollars cause your name is similar to that of a deceased 2000 miles away ….wake up….smell the coffee!!!!!!! they should have mental institutions for those dumb enuf to pay this crap….to be THAT stupid is a crime!
Jeez it must be great to be you Fiona. Unfortunately, there are many people who are not as au fait as you obviously are with a computer. These articles are generally aimed at those people in the hope that they won’t be caught out.
By the way, the people I think should be locked up are those who spell ‘you’ ‘u’ and enough ‘enuf’ to name a couple, and who neglect to use any form of grammar or punctuation.
Does that mean the very religious Widow of the Nigerian Foreign Minister will not be sending her husbands money to my Bank Account ?
On a related topic the Garda badge and other Garda marked items such as hats and mugs are freely on sale in various Dublin city center shops. This is easily incorporated into a wallet to produce a credible Yards id. Why is this permitted?
For Yards read Garda….. Monday morning, stubby fingers and too smart phone!
Maybe make the Gardai aware of these products , it is possible they don’t know about them
Garda badge can be used as a logo under license. Same as nypd. But wearing it here bit of a grey area its fine but if it resembles a uniform its an offence and can be taken.
As for ransomware best thing is to have a good firewall and anti virus. Nothing guards can do as the servers are located in russia and we know how helpful they are.
If you get infected with this here is wiick fix.
Turn off your pc by holding down power button for 5 seconds till it dies.
Restart and after bios screen which is very very first thing on screen press f8 and hold.
Menu pops up. Select safe mode with networking.
Start windows. Will look awful but open your Internet go to google search anti malware . download whatever you choose run it and it will root it out. After that restart.
Done sorted.
Now please sent me 50 euro care of the journal.
The Garda name, logo and corporate identity is a registered trademark and subject to copyright. The logo can only be used with the permission of the Garda Commissioner.
Gardaí have seized such goods from several shops in the past. It is possible that some goods in tourist shops etc. are licensed as souvenirs. See related article here:
Send me your account details, PIN number, mothers maiden name and I will deposit the 50 in! ;)
The logo can be used with permission on mugs, keyrings and that kind of thing. Not allowed on items of clothing at all.
Certainly a good few crimes against grammar in your post there, Fiona. Not everyone has the shining brilliance you seem to think you possess!
Scotland Yard guard is it?!
Nice one Mary !
On the off chance anyone reading the article is infected with that bit of malware. The simple fix is start the pc tapping f8. Get into the repair my computer screen and do a system restore back to a date before you were infected
This is a good short term solution but if a computer has come into contact with this virus it is most likely due to be lack of Internet security and rolling it back will not remove it fully. Any time I’ve seen this virus it usually has different virus’s close by waiting to infect the machine again. To make sure the any virus is gone you need to ask a professional to take a look at it
While it makes sense to perform a system restore to remove virus it creates a false sense of security. To protect data such as images, documents and music try moving it from the default folder preferably on a partition other than the default system partition – and of course ensure that any virus software is updated t latest definition file.
Virus software can be dloaded free of charge (avg, panda as well as MS Security Essentials)
To remove this virus restart your computer in Safe Mode with Command Prompt, press F8 when booting and choose “Safe Mode with Command Prompt” from the options provided.
If using XP at the command prompt, type rstrui.exe, and then press Enter, or if you are using Windows Vista, 7 and 8, you can type: C:\windows\system32\rstrui.exe , and press Enter.
System Restore should start, and you will display also a list of restore points. Try using a restore point created just before the date and time the virus has infected your computer.
When System Restore has completed its task, start your computer in Windows regular mode, and perform a scan with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.
Was in the Garda station renewing my passport a while back and this old chap had brought his laptop into the station. The screen was frozen, even after rebooting . He was in the Garda station to pay in person, as ironically he didn’t trust online payments. So it does happen. I just butted in and recommended that he, reboot, hold down f12 and let the laptop boot as normal. Seemed to work
I got an email from some guy saying he was the favourite some of a very rich chief. His da was in a spot f bother with the government and needed to hide tonnes of money somewhere. Offered me 10% if I would put a couple of million in my bank account. Quinn I think he said, from Fermanagh or somewhere..
Needless to say I copped that it was a scam right away.. ;-)
“a victim of such crime should report it to their local Garda station” so the Garda at the desk can look at you as if you have two heads while informing you that the Garda don’t deal with this sorta thing
I’m guessing, if ya have done something wrong,a Garda will call to your door! Eg non payment of TV license, jay,-walking, sneezing! As apposed to playing second google in Anglo bank where you get diplomatic immunity!
@Bob, jaywalking and sneezing are not an offence and the Gardai are not tv licence inspectors, they just follow up on a court issued warrant if a court fine isn’t paid. And if you were just trying to be funny, it was a pretty poor effort
I want to read the advice on the Garda website but my computer says that it’s locked…
Linux
First tine I’ve agreed with you, Morticia!
Annette I hope u r readin dis an my spelin is gud enuf for u. I luv fcuking de english language.
If your name is anything to go by, you love f*cking the Irish language too.
Tristan, if you have no problem with people thinking you’re an illiterate idiot… Well then neither do I. :)
Not that Fiona is any better in writing “as Gaeilge”. Surely the “h” in Ní HAnrachtaigh should be lower case as it’s used to inflect the name, the first letter of which is A, ie, Ní hAnrachtaigh?
Wha???
I paid my unlock fee last month and it worked. So it does happen.
Hello, I’m the wallet inspector, can I see your wallet please?
Well done you
If it looks like a scam it is a scam. There is another one doing the rounds, you get a call from someone claiming to be a garda saying you left a petrol pump without paying and unless you pay now i.e. submit your card details they are coming around to make an arrest.
Where the hell is Harry?
Payment is made at a pay point in a local store to these scammers, so why don’t they just get these accounts blocked by pay point.
The Gardai don’t bother with the internet. They will just con you out on the streets….
Hilarious
Hi, I’m some guy you’ve never heard of, from Latvia, or Nigeria. Send me a grand, and your bank account details, and ill lodge 10 mil into your account. Sigh!
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