Back in August the Booker Dozen 13 novels were longlisted for the Prize, which in September became a shortlist of six novels, and today a winner announced.

The judges were looking for the best work of long-form fiction, written in English, selected from entries published in the UK and Ireland between 1 October 2022 and 30 September 2023.

I read two from the longlist, both Irish novels that I very much enjoyed, Sebastian Barry’s Old God’s Time and Elaine Feeney’s How To Build A Boat. Sadly, neither made the shortlist below, but another two Irish novels did make it, The Bee Sting by Paul Murray which just won the Irish Novel of the Year and Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song.

From this shortlist of six novels, the winning novel is:

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

Why You Should Read This Book According to the Judges

How would you summarise this book in a sentence to encourage readers to pick it up? 

Prophet Song follows one woman’s attempts to save her family in a dystopic Ireland sliding further and further into authoritarian rule. It is a shocking, at times tender novel that is not soon forgotten.  

Is there something unique about this book, something that you haven’t encountered in fiction before? 

The prose is a feast, with gorgeous rolling sentences you sink into. A stylistic gem.  

What do you think it is about this book that readers will not only admire, but really love? 

It is propulsive and unsparing, and it flinches away from nothing. This is an utterly brave performance by an author at the peak of his powers, and it is terribly moving.  

Can you tell us about any particular characters that readers might connect with, and why? 

Eilish is our guide through this relentless world, and we feel as deeply as she feels. The situations are sometimes dire, and yet she remains resilient, determined and, above all, human. She breaks our hearts. 

Although it’s a work of fiction, is there anything about it that’s especially relevant to issues we’re confronting in today’s world? 

Far from didactic, the book warns of the precarity of democratic ideals and the ugly possibilities that lie beyond their desecration. 

Is there one specific moment in the book that has stuck in your mind and, if so, why?  

Prophet Song has one of the most haunting endings you will ever read. The book lives long in the mind after you’ve set it down.

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That’s a wrap, the end of the literary award season 2023.

Have you read Prophet Song, or if not, do you think you might be tempted to read it?