The thing about Prophet Song, Paul Lynch’s unexpected winner of the Booker, is that it’s almost hilariously unprophetic. It starts with the Irish secret police knocking at the door, looking for a trades unionist, and goes on to a dystopian vision of a fascist state.
In fact, it turns out the actual Irish police were so scared by the rioters on the streets of Dublin on Friday that they left them to get on with it. And the only reason why the police might come knocking is when the new, authoritarian hate speech law comes into effect, whereby you’ll be banned from having any “hateful” material either on your computer or in book form in your home.
