2023 Winner

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch has been named the winner of the Booker Prize 2023.

Heralded in one review as ‘a crucial book for our current times’, Prophet Song captures some of the biggest social and political anxieties of our age, from the rise of political extremism to the global plight of refugees. Chair of Judges, Esi Edugyan, described the winning book as ‘soul-shattering and true’, adding that readers ‘will not soon forget its warnings’.

Lynch is the fifth Irish author to win the Booker Prize. Paul Lynch said of the book, ‘Prophet Song is partly an attempt at radical empathy. I wanted to deepen the reader’s immersion to such a degree that by the end of the book, they would not just know, but feel this problem for themselves'.