Prophet Song: LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.
Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and Eilish can only watch helplessly as the world she knew disappears. When first her husband and then her eldest son vanish, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society.
How far will she go to save her family? And what – or who – is she willing to leave behind?
Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Prophet Song is a work of breathtaking originality, offering a devastating vision of a country at war and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.
Latest reviews
Totally gripping tale of state control, all the more affecting because it is set in modern day Ireland. I couldn't put it down and have recommended it to everyone who would listen...
OMG!!! What just happened?!?! Left feeling completely stunned after reading this one. Need to take a moment to process it all. The writing style was difficult to get used to with no paragraph breaks, very little punctuation and it was often difficult to tell who was actually speaking. I got used to that by about half way through and the rest of it flew by. Couldn't put it down. Yes, it's nothing we don't know already about extreme right wing governments exerting too much power, rebellion, civil war and refugees, but it's no less powerful for that. Totally took my breath away.
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