The ease with which a democratic country can degenerate into a police state is the premise of Prophet Song, Paul Lynch's frightening, all-too-plausible novel, winner of the 2023 Booker Prize.
One night, molecular biologist Eilish Stack is at home in Ireland, looking outside as the dark, in Lynch's elegant prose, "gathers the last of the leaves and the leaves do not resist the dark but accept the dark in whisper." Two officers from the secret police tell her they're looking for her husband, Larry, the deputy general secretary of the Teachers' Union of Ireland. When Larry goes to the police, detectives inform him that his behavior "looks like the conduct of someone inciting hatred against the state." In the aftermath of a protest march, authorities use the newly passed Emergency Powers Act to round up union personnel. Larry is among them. He doesn't return.
So begins a nightmare for Eilish and her family that Lynch (Grace; Beyond the Sea) describes with effective immediacy. When 16-year-old son Mark is called for national service, Eilish wants to send him to boarding school over the border, but Mark joins the rebel forces instead. Daughter Molly lapses into depression. Younger son Bailey starts exhibiting hostile behavior at home. Simon, Eilish's widowed father, suffers from encroaching dementia. It's a lot for Eilish to deal with, even before the fighting comes to Dublin. Lynch presents it all with matter-of-fact poetry that makes the events credible and serves as a chilling reminder that no country is immune. Prophet Song is a disquieting novel from an exceptional writer. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer