Das Lied des Propheten

If there is such a thing as a central book for our time, it is this one. Brilliant and haunting.

On a rain-soaked evening in Dublin, scientist and mother of four Eilish Stack opens her front door to find two officers from the newly established Irish secret police standing before her. They have come to interrogate her husband Larry, a well-known trade unionist. Shortly after this encounter, Larry disappears, and things in Eilish's world quickly begin to spiral out of control.

Ireland is under the grip of a government heading toward tyranny. Eilish finds herself caught in the nightmarish logic of a collapsing society, attacked by invisible forces beyond her control. She is forced to do everything she can to protect her family and keep them together. How is she supposed to explain to her children what has happened when they ask about their father? How will her increasingly demented father react to the drastic changes in his daily life? And how far will Eilish go to save herself and her family?

The Song of the Prophet is a breathless portrait of a family on the brink of catastrophe, stylistically and emotionally unparalleled. Paul Lynch's masterful novel is the book of the hour – a call to combat the emerging authoritarian regimes of the present.

A triumph of emotional storytelling, bold and thought-provoking. An important and unforgettable reading experience. One of the most shocking and provocative novels I have read in a long time. Paul Lynch is one of the most celebrated Irish writers of his generation, and The Song of the Prophet is Ireland's 1984. A masterpiece. Terrifyingly plausible.