Booker Prize Winner 2023: Who is Irish Author Paul Lynch?
Nishtha Badgamia
Irish writer Paul Lynch won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2023 for his dystopian novel Prophet Song, at a ceremony in London.
The 46-year-old beat UK-based Indian-origin author Chetna Maroo’s debut novel Western Lane, was also shortlisted for the prize.
Lynch took inspiration from world events including Brexit and the rise of nationalism in Europe to write this novel. He also said that the book was inspired by the Syrian war and refugee crisis.
Born in Limerick, the author wrote the book set in Dublin, where he currently lives, about a family grappling with a terrifying new world which is descending into fascism and democratic norms are a distant memory.
The dystopian novel Prophet Song was the fifth book that the Irish author has written and spent four years working on.
Lynch’s novel has no paragraph breaks or quotation marks, which evokes a sense of claustrophobia for the reader but also portrays that the novel’s protagonist Eilish Stack has no pause or respite from the nightmare.
Lynch said that he plans to spend some of his $63,000 prize money on his mortgage.