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  • Prophet Song

  • By: Paul Lynch
  • Narrated by: Gerry O'Brien
  • Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (124 ratings)

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Prophet Song cover art

Prophet Song

By: Paul Lynch
Narrated by: Gerry O'Brien
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Publisher's Summary

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 when her husband disappears, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a society that is quickly unravelling.

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.

©2023 Paul Lynch (P)2023 Bolinda Publishing

Critic Reviews

'The comparisons are inevitable – Saramago, Orwell, McCarthy – but this novel will stand entirely on its own.' (Colum McCann, author of Apeirogon)

'Monumental ... You remember why fiction matters. It's hard to recall a more powerful novel in recent years.' (Samantha Harvey, author of The Western Wind)

'Prophet Song is a literary manifesto for empathy for those in need and a brilliant, haunting novel that should be placed into the hands of policymakers everywhere.' (The Guardian)

What listeners say about Prophet Song

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
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Dark but compelling

Whilst the story is disturbing you can relate it to the thousands who have been displaced by war and political turmoil. It makes you think what if it was me? Would I have such courage and resilience?

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Devastating and beautiful

I haven’t been moved by a novel like this for a long while. Lynch writes like a poet. The narrator makes it all the more compelling. Thank you.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Mother Courage for our time

This is a brilliant, flawless, courageous work of lyrical genius. Superb. A masterpiece. And it’s beautifully read.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Rh
  • 17-11-2023

Tragic yet compelling

Told with unwavering truth it tears the reader apart as we feel the inconsolable grief of a woman torn apart by the totalitarian state.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Hauntingly beautiful and devastating

How quickly a seemingly normal family can be devastated by the heartless and heedless acts of those who are part of their own country. Unforgettable.

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2 people found this helpful

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“The end of the world is always local.”

If books were symphonies, Prophet Song would be Mozart’s Requiem. How can words with so much grief weave a story of redemption? In simple beautiful words, the domestic urbane Irish setting of contemporary war, a prophetic story is woven. This book is a gift for us all.

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Brilliant

A beautiful but very bleak look at a world on the brink of madness. Excellent narration.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Captured the lives of those living in countries at war

Paul Lynch has captured every emotional moment of the destruction of life , not by death but by living under a regime of terror. Brilliant writing the starts by the small daily changes and moves in a crescendo to the point where nothing can be trusted again

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This book was riveting from start to finish.

I was taken with the idea of when I myself would leave in such a situation as this. Fabulous read.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Compulsory Reading

A difficult read at times but should be compulsory reading for all of us.
Shows how all our lives can change so easily.

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