eBook
Published Dec. 5, 2023 by Grove Atlantic.
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find two officers from Ireland's newly formed secret police on her step. They have arrived to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.
Ireland is falling apart, caught in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny. As the life she knows and the ones she loves disappear before her eyes, Eilish must contend with the dystopian logic of her new, unraveling country. How far will she go to save her family? And what—or who—is she willing to leave behind?
A nightmare in book form. I could only read for an hour at a time.
How a contemporary western state can collapse from the perspective of an Irish middle class family.
Deserves every prize, compulsory reading.
Categorise with Atwood.
First, I love the use of language, punctuation, syntax, in this book. It took time to acclimate, but once one does it becomes a character itself. I cannot imagine this story written in a more conventional way. At least not a story as powerful.
Second, I had no idea when I finished how much I would be thinking about it a month later. Do not get me wrong, I marinated on this book for a while after finishing (and while reading, of course), but recent events have made this story much more... pointed.
This was a difficult read and I wouldn't say I "enjoyed" it (apart from the language, which is beautiful at times, and cutting at others, and so so bleak). Do not go into Prophet Song expecting a rollicking read. It hurts, it frightens, it warns. This is all my opinion, of course, and I haven't explored the …
First, I love the use of language, punctuation, syntax, in this book. It took time to acclimate, but once one does it becomes a character itself. I cannot imagine this story written in a more conventional way. At least not a story as powerful.
Second, I had no idea when I finished how much I would be thinking about it a month later. Do not get me wrong, I marinated on this book for a while after finishing (and while reading, of course), but recent events have made this story much more... pointed.
This was a difficult read and I wouldn't say I "enjoyed" it (apart from the language, which is beautiful at times, and cutting at others, and so so bleak). Do not go into Prophet Song expecting a rollicking read. It hurts, it frightens, it warns. This is all my opinion, of course, and I haven't explored the reviews of others much (if you see this, please let me know what you thought!). I am glad I read it.
Wow.
It took me a minute to sink into the third person present PoV and the lack of paragraphs and dialogue marks and the certain Irishness of the prose. And then ... suddenly … I found myself swept away by this fevered dream of a mother struggling to scrape out a bit of sanity in an insane and tragic world, mama-bearing her way through as best she can.
Wow.
You have never read a story like this and will never again. I highly, highly recommend this.
Wow.
…
Oh, by the way, this won the Booker Prize in 2023.
A mother tries to hold her family together as her country falls to fascism and civil war. A gut punch of a book made all the more terrifying when read next to the news of our time.
A harrowing portrait of a rapid descent into fascism taking place in a fictional Ireland ruled by a nationalist party. Haven't stopped thinking about it since I put it down, destined to be a classic of the dystopian genre (although it so close to home it barely qualifies as dystopia.)
While gripping, immersive and as bleak as an Irish November during a beer shortage, this dirge was not as fun as your average dystopia. It even turns the genre on its head a bit. There is none of thae survivalist excitement that plays out in so many standard fare dystopias like an RPG-find the ammo, the helicopter, the petrol station- drive on mostly unobstructed roads fast as you flee or flight your way to a tenuous survival. Free of the YA hero/ine trope of teenagers saving humanity with their improbably expert skills. It does not even veer into more hopeless dystopias, like such movies as Time of the Wolf or The Survivalist. It is an imagining terrifyingly prosaic and I did felt nothing but numb horror but could not stop reading it. The events seemed to unfold so rapidly, one day a fascist is elected, the next day, emergency powers, …
While gripping, immersive and as bleak as an Irish November during a beer shortage, this dirge was not as fun as your average dystopia. It even turns the genre on its head a bit. There is none of thae survivalist excitement that plays out in so many standard fare dystopias like an RPG-find the ammo, the helicopter, the petrol station- drive on mostly unobstructed roads fast as you flee or flight your way to a tenuous survival. Free of the YA hero/ine trope of teenagers saving humanity with their improbably expert skills. It does not even veer into more hopeless dystopias, like such movies as Time of the Wolf or The Survivalist. It is an imagining terrifyingly prosaic and I did felt nothing but numb horror but could not stop reading it. The events seemed to unfold so rapidly, one day a fascist is elected, the next day, emergency powers, then civil war. Though this actually takes place over several years, the party gets real evil real fast, mainly through your standard 1984 sort of propaganda and the nationalism festering from some vague threat. Get out, you start yelling at the heroine from early on in the book, but also, you know you yourself would hesitate. maybe too long. I was so depressed afterward, so timely and terrifying a narrative went right along with the usual Christmas gloom.
Experience the relentless whirlwind of life-changing events. As glimpsed only on the sanitised evening news if you're lucky! Devastatingly perceptive. Prepare for the emotional impact. The wind from your lungs.
