Irish writer Paul Lynch won the Booker Prize for his fiction titled “Prophet Song.” The judges called it a “soul-shattering” novel about a woman’s struggle to protect her family as Ireland collapses into totalitarianism and war.
- He was awarded the 50,000-pound ($63,000) literary prize at a ceremony in London.
- Mr. Lynch has called “Prophet Song,” his fifth novel, an attempt at “radical empathy” that tries to plunge readers into the experience of living in a collapsing society.
- The Booker Prize was founded in 1969.
- The prize is open to English-language novels from any country published in the U.K. and Ireland, and has a reputation for transforming writers’ careers.
- Previous winners include Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie and Hilary Mantel.
- Lynch received his trophy from last year’s winner, Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka, during a ceremony at Old Billingsgate, a grand former Victorian fish market in central London.
