Prophet Song by Paul Lynch Booker Prize

[LadyEloise1]

If you read Prophet Song what did you think ?
Just reading it now.

I read it for my book club a while ago. I thought it was a good story. It probably would bring home why people illegally emigrate to anti-immigration people as its set in Ireland, a well developed country. However, I found it hard to get into, the chapters were very long and some of the characters I found annoying, in paticular the eldest son. Overall it was a good book, but I wouldn't read anything else from Paul Lynch.

I agree the chapters are long. I haven't finished it yet but would recommend it.

I know this thread is a bit old but I just finished reading this book. I absolutely enjoyed it. I took my time because I found it to be a very sad and scary book and I refused to think ahead of what was going to happen in the future. I sort of buried my head in the sand (sort of holding my breathe) throughout the book and burst into tears at the end. The line "to the sea we must go" tipped me over the edge and I remembered those two little boys' body washed up at the beach in France or somewhere whilst trying to cross the med.

I think it was a great book.
Clever.
Frightening when you see what is happening all over the world.
It could come to pass in First World countries.
Some of it already has.

Absolutely great book, I've never read his books before. TBH I didn't read the reviews or synopsis so didn't know what to expect apart from knowing that he won the Booker Prize. In my ignorance as the setting was in Ireland, I was expecting a resolution between the Govt forces and the rebels. I never linked them with boats or the sea. You hear stories of Engineers, Doctors, Solicitors, Teachers, all living as refugees when in their previous lives the were influencers in their professions. I don't have anyone to talk to about this in real life. A friend started reading but stopped saying the book is too sad.

Sometimes the simplest things drive it home for me. For example, my 3 year old asking for water and I imagine not being able to give her any or not having enough for her and her siblings. Poor Ben teething without any pain relief.

I think it also in a way explains why we see a lot of men on the boats as opposed to women, especially if young girls have to go through what Molly almost went through and being unable to stop it as a parent.

Also, was it the case that Tallaght Hospital accepted Bailey as an adult and allowed him to be taken for torture? I suppose in a war zone any young boy that no longer looks childlike is seen as the enemy by opposing sides. Poor Bailey, I thought she was freaking after she found him in the morgue.

I would love a follow up book but I suspect it might not live up to this one and also the fact that a lot of people do not get the happy ending they look forward to might make the book unrealistic.
I'll stop now 😊

Utterly chilling. It feels wrong to say that I enjoyed it. But I was rapt. The way it unfolds and just gets worse and worse. Her powerlessness is just terrible. How many millions of people are as powerlessness as that right now?

And yes, the line, to the sea we must go, was just so powerful. I sat in stunned silence for a good while after I'd finished it.

I'm glad I read it but would t read it again.

I can see why it won the booker.

I found the protagonist highly irritating. I was shouting at her through the page. So many bad decisions...

It is quite a claustrophobic book.

I felt like the ending was too heavy handed a comparison to a very political news story.

The use of language was exquisite - prose poetry, in places. That kept me turning pages.

As an exploration of a society's slide into totalitarianism, it was chilling.

And all too feasible.

After all, that has happened before, not too long ago or far away, and we seem to be at the stage where memory of why and how it happened is fading from living memory, making it all the more vital that some people interrupt that process of forgetting.

So, as a work of art I rate it, and it also has value as a means of remembering that civil liberties are vital, and even warning readers about signs of decline on that front.

Yes it was all too feasible @WhisperTree
That was the scary thing.

Yep not a light feelgood read @LadyEloise1

It ended up being one of the best books I read last year. I keep finding myself thinking about it - the overall themes, more than the characters or specific sections of it.