Prophet Song was so interesting and I can see why it was on award lists. I appreciated the character exploration and the themes of authoritarianism.

Lynch’s prose feels really individual, I don’t think there are many authors that have his same sense is self and ease while writing.

While I do love the prose the story took me a bit to get into I can appreciate its merit but wasn’t quite a hit for me.

Although I had the ebook edition I listened to the audiobook, so I was spared the pain of having to read a book without quotation marks marks or paragraphs. I was not spared from the run on sentences. I have to believe that the people who vote on the Booker Prize were impressed by that literary affectation. I also assume that they were impressed by the subject matter - a fictional slide into totalitarianism and the plight of refugees in present day Ireland. There are plenty of non-fiction examples, both past and present, that would be much more useful to read about. There are also better fictional accounts.

This book is terribly monotonous. I made it to the 42% point and started to skim just to see how it turned out. It is not unusual for me to dislike the winners of book awards, but this one was a disappointment. The description was promising.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

The Stack family lives in Dublin, Ireland. Eilish, the mother, sees over four children, her husband, and her father who lives a few miles away. She has a teenage son, a teenage daughter, a preteen son and a baby. Her father is flirting with Alzheimer's disease and needs more and more help. Her husband is the union representative for the teachers union. Eilish barely has time to think about politics but things are happening. A right wing group, almost fascist in purpose, has won at the polls and they are tightening things down. One night Eilish goes to the door and two men are there from the government to talk with her husband. He refuses to back down and when he goes to a large protest, he is arrested and imprisoned.

A rebellion forms to fight the government and its repression. Soon Eilish loses her oldest son who leaves to fight with the rebellion. Her sister who immigrated to Canada years ago wants Eilish to come with her children and father but Eilish can't imagine leaving everything they have built and not being there when her husband and her son return. So she stays with her children as food gets short and electricity and water become infrequent. Her sister sent money so Eilish can buy food when there is stock in the stores. Soon her second son talks about joining the rebellion and Eilish is losing control of him. When the fighting comes to Dublin itself and neighborhoods become battlefields, Eilish must decide how to save the children and herself.

I barely know how to write about this book. It is stunning and prophetic and difficult to read. Many will relate it to the political discord in the United States but the author in an interview says 'the end of the world is always happening somewhere' and further states that every country he goes to believes that he has told their story. It is the story about what happens when those in power want more but more importantly, it is the story of human hope and how it can bloom in the worst situations. This book is recommended for literary fiction readers but it is not an easy read.

Spectacular. Fascinating and terrifying. A book which has been generating a huge amount of discussion among the customers in our bookshop and a title which I am really enjoying hand-selling. A worthy winner of the Booker Prize!

I thought this was absolutely brilliant. I don't normally read dystopian fiction if I can help it but I was completely astonished by this novel. As is true of most dystopian texts it has a very pressing real world narrative that it depends upon but navigating themes of tyrannical governments and survival make it feel so timeless that it could reflect any moment of the last hundred years. Having read it, I'm not surprised it won the booker- this was upsetting, uncomfortable and absolutely essential.

A powerful dystopian novel. It is set in a frighting Republic of Ireland where "the Party" have been in power for 2 years and the state is slipping into totalitarianism. The parallels between this and the current war on Palestine make for a totally heartbreaking read and as a mother I found myself feeling absolutely heartbroken and helpless for them. An incredible must read.

This ended up as a DNF for me. Despite its captivating start and unusual formatting, I ended up being bored. The initial chapters gave way to a monotonous dystopian narrative that failed to keep the engagement going. While there are quotable lines scattered throughout, the overall tone—laden with sadness and depression—made reading it feel like a chore. So, at the 25% mark, I just

This was a really incredible, intimate, frightening, heartbreaking dystopia. So well written and harrowing.

A harrowing dystopian novel unconventional told from the perspective of a woman trying (and failing) to keep her family together in the face of an unexplained political collapse. Though the ambiguity of the political upheaval allows a focus on the characters, and a universality in the application of fear, it also results in too easy of a merging of many current disasters. Only by tying the apocalyptic narrative to the events of the Irish troubles was I able to understand the profound impact of the world the book hypothesizes.

This book also contains unconventional formatting, both with its lack of paragraphs and lack of quoted dialogue. Though it took a couple dozen pages to get used to, this format ultimately succeeded in mimicking the ambiguous atmosphere of the novel, blending reality with imagination, what is said with what is thought.

It’s a DNF for me at 25%. I am really trying but the writing style and format are so difficult for me to get through.

Lack of punctuation usually isn’t a problem for me, but the author choosing to write the book in big blocks of text make it so difficult not to continuously zone out and not taking in anything of what is happening — which is a shame because I am enjoying the story.

I’m sorry.

RIP me. This book. I'm done.

Those Booker judges last year - honestly, did they just compile the most depressing reads of the year and call it a Longlist? This was my 7th from the list and nary a laugh amongst them!

Ok that being said - this book (the Winner of the Booker Prize 2023) is absolutely brilliant. Shockingly so. I was so stressed and sad while reading it - I was fighting tears for most of the second half, and obsessing about it when I wasn't reading or listening to it. This is probably not selling it, but I love when a book makes me feel such powerful feelings.

It is set in a dystopian Republic of Ireland where "the Party" have been in power for 2 years and the state is slipping into totalitarianism. The whole novel is centred on Eilish and her family and begins with her husband being arrested and taken away with no explanation. It is her thoughts, her conversations and her life as she tries to deal with the unravelling situation and protect her 4 children and her elderly father. Honestly, my heart. I cannot do it justice. The writing is stunning. I can completely see why it won the award.

Lynch stated in an interview that one of the main inspirations for the book was the Syrian Civil War, the ensuing refugee crisis, and the West's indifference to the plight of refugees. I spent the entire book thinking of the mothers in Palestine and their absolute helplessness and heartbreak. If you read any of the quotes you will understand what I mean. There's a whole part where she is trying to seek medical help for one of the children and it is one of the most frustrating and distressing things I have read.

It will most definitely not be for everyone, and I think if I just read it alone without any audio I may have struggled to get into it. There are no speech marks, or paragraphs and it is very dense and train of thought like. My husband described it as very monotone. But I found with the combination of the written work and the audio I was able to adjust to the style and you get used to it very quickly.

This one broke my heart. A new all-time favourite for sure.

This is a powerful book that had me gripped to each page. The conclusion leaves you with a haunting sense of proximity to real-world events experienced by many and that are close to the surface in many countries. Prophet Song depicts a nation’s transformation, a change in government leading to the erosion of rights and freedoms. Eilish Slack battles to keep her family intact after her husband, protesting the new regime, vanishes overnight. As her older son joins the resistance, she faces the dilemma of choosing to stay in her homeland or seek refuge with the rest of her family. The story’s believability is unsettling, reflecting the harsh reality in some countries right now and people having to make impossible choices. The storytelling and the writing were excellent.

Thank you Netgalley for this eARC!

Maybe a little too pertinent for our time. I really enjoyed the way the 'major players' are a sideline in this. We're watching a mother attempt to survive with her children. To do all that mothers have to do only here under incredibly extreme circumstances.

Incredible. It's no surprise this book has taken the literary world by storm. I love this book and am so glad I had the chance to read it.

Absolutely beautiful, this book reads like poetry and hits like an emotional sledgehammer. It’s far from an easy read but wow - worth every second.

Absolutely nerve-shredding. Lynch delivers a chilling rebuke to all the 'it couldn't happen here' voices out there by showing us an Ireland where it has happened -- you could even say happened again. The way that society in this very very near future slips, slides, falls, and suddenly is in the midst of paramilitary conflict will take your breath away. Remember that it not only could happen here, but it could happen this fast.

It doesn’t pick up until more than halfway through, and no paragraph break or quotation marks is a CHOICE. Unfortunate because those stylistic choices take away from the travesty that is living through war.

An all-too-plausible dystopian novel. Absolutely can see why it won the Booker and will be recommending it. The writing style took a bit to get used to but it wouldn't be the same story without the tense, claustrophobic feeling it lends.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the advanced copy.

Didn’t get to finish this in time before it was published but I’m SO happy it won the Booker prize 🥹 I bought a copy and am rereading since my arc expired. I anticipate this will be a five star read. It’s so powerful.