Fifth novel Prophet Song to be published in September 2023

Paul Lynch's fifth novel PROPHET SONG will be published by Oneworld on 7 September 2023. The book is set in an Ireland falling under the spell of a totalitarian government and tells the tale of Eilish Stack who tries desperately to keep her family together.

“On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her doorstep. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police want to speak with her husband, Larry, a trade unionist for the Teachers’ Union of Ireland. Things are falling apart. Ireland is in the grip of a government that is taking a turn towards tyranny. And as the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society — assailed by unpredictable forces beyond her control and forced to do whatever it takes to keep her family together.

Exhilarating, terrifying, propulsive and confrontational, Prophet Song is a work of breathtaking originality, a novel that can be read as a parable of the present, the future and the past.”

Advance praise for Prophet Song:

“A monumental novel, prose so flawless and flowing that reading it is akin to being taken up in a wave. You emerge dazed. You remember why fiction matters. It's hard to recall a more powerful novel in recent years.”

— Samantha Harvey, author of The Western Wind