Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song wins the 2023 Booker Prize – but the judges picked the wrong Paul
With three Pauls on a shortlist of six names, there was a decent chance one would triumph with the 2023 Booker Prize. As it turns out, it is Paul Lynch for his hauntingly claustrophobic tale , published by Oneworld. The novel, about an imagined near-future dystopian Ireland that is heading towards tyranny, is undoubtedly a powerful book, but it’s a winning choice that jars. Picking favourite books is highly subjective, of course, but for me the outstanding novel on the shortlist was by another Irishman called Paul – .
