LONDON (AP) — Irish writer Paul Lynch won the Booker Prize for fiction on Sunday with a novel the jury called “soul-shattering” about a woman’s fight to protect her family as Ireland descends into totalitarianism and war.
“Prophet Song,” set in a dystopian fictional version of Dublin, won the 50,000 pound ($63,000) literary prize at a ceremony in London. Canadian writer Esi Edugyan, who chaired the jury, said the book was “a triumph of emotional, powerful and courageous storytelling” in which Lynch “achieves linguistic feats that are breathtaking to witness.”
Lynch, 46, was bookmakers’ favorite to win the prestigious prize, which usually brings a big boost in sales. His book beat five other finalists from Ireland, the UK, the US and Canada, chosen from 163 novels submitted by publishers.
Lynch has called his fifth novel Prophet Song, an attempt at “radical empathy” that seeks to immerse readers in the experience of living in a collapsing society.
“I tried to look into modern chaos,” he told the Booker website. “The unrest in Western democracies. The problem of Syria – the implosion of an entire nation, the extent of the refugee crisis and the indifference of the West. … I wanted to deepen the reader’s immersion so that by the end of the book they not only know this problem, but also feel it themselves.”
The five judges met on Saturday to select the winner, less than 48 hours after far-right violence erupted in Dublin following a knife attack on a group of children.
Edugyan said that immediate events would not have a direct impact on the selection of the winner. She said Lynch’s book “captures the social and political anxieties of our current moment” but also deals with “timeless” themes.
The other finalists were “The Bee Sting” by Irish writer Paul Murray; “This Other Eden” by American writer Paul Harding; “Study for Obedience” by Canadian author Sarah Bernstein; “If I Survive You” by US author Jonathan Escoffery; and “Western Lane” by British author Chetna Maroo.
Edugyan said the selection of the winner was not unanimous, but the six-hour jury meeting was not acrimonious.
“Ultimately, we all felt that this was the book we wanted to present to the world and that this was truly a masterful work of fiction,” she said.
Established in 1969, the Booker Prize is open to English-language novels from any country published in the United Kingdom and Ireland. and has a reputation for transforming the careers of writers. Previous winners include Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie and Hilary Mantel.
Lynch received his trophy from last year’s winner, Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka, during a ceremony at Old Billingsgate, a large former Victorian fish market in central London.
The evening included a speech by Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman who was imprisoned in Tehran for nearly six years until 2022 for allegedly plotting to overthrow the Iranian government – an accusation she, her supporters and human rights groups denied .
She spoke about the books that sustained her in prison, including Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” set in an oppressive American theocracy.
“Books helped me find refuge in other people’s worlds when I was unable to make one myself,” Zaghari-Ratcliffe said. “They saved me by being one of the few tools I had, along with my imagination, to escape the walls of the Evin (prison) without physically moving.”