Paul Lynch is the author of five novels. Born in 1977, he grew up in Malin Head, the most northerly point on the Irish coast. His latest novel, Prophet Song, depicts a nightmarish vision of Ireland sliding into an authoritarian regime. Written in long, poetic sentences – without speech marks and few paragraph breaks – the novel pulls the reader into the claustrophobic world of a city under siege. Described by Lit Hub as a “300-page panic-attack”, Prophet Song, just published in paperback, won the Booker prize last year. Lynch has been compared to Cormac McCarthy and William Faulkner.
How has it been since you won the Booker?
I no longer measure time in weeks and months. I measure it by interviews. At Christmas, I’d passed the 100 mark. I’m at about 170 now. It still seems improbable, miraculous even, that the Booker prize came my way, though my eight-year-old daughter is unimpressed. She announced recently: “I am sick and tired of people stopping you on the street and saying ‘congratulations’.” The disdain with which she said that word would strip the skin.
