PROPHET SONG by Paul Lynch

This book is a terrifying look at the deterioration of society under a police state. The novel is set in Dublin, during the beginning of a government crack down on anyone whom it views as a dissident.

The narrator, Eilish, is a married mother of four. In the opening chapter, her husband, Larry Stack, the deputy general secretary of the Teacher’s Union of Ireland, is taken into police custody for being an agitator and committing crimes against the State. The Emergency Powers Act has been put in place in the country, which allows the police and government agencies, freedom to do almost anything to its citizens with impunity.

We follow the harrowing experience of Eilish as she struggles, and fails to come to terms with what is happening in the country. Her elderly father, who has dementia, lives across town and Eilish tries to convince him to come live with her and her family, until this temporary disruption has passed. She is certain her husband will return home though she has no reason to believe this. In fact, she hears stories of people being rounded up and imprisoned and never heard from again.

When the State announces that boys must register and serve in the armed forces. Eilish tries to hide her seventeen year old son, Mark, but he has ideas of his own and decides to join the rebels who are fighting the government forces. If he’s found, he will be arrested and imprisoned.

News of Mark’s defection is announced in the newspaper, which reaches neighbors and shop keepers. Eilish is subjected to public persecution. The shopkeepers won’t serve her food. Someone vandalizes her car and she has to sell it. Then, in a matter of weeks, Eilish loses contact with Mark.

Eilish has a sister, Aine, whom she’s estranged from. Aine has left Ireland for Canada and tries to convince Eilish to take her children and flee the country. But Eilish is paralyzed. How can she leave her husband and her son, Mark?

Then her youngest, Bailey, goes missing after a mortar attack nearly destroys their home. Eilish is injured in the blast. Despite this, she tries to find Bailey who has been taken to a hospital. But when Eilish arrives at the hospital, she finds that Bailey has been transferred to a military hospital.

Frantic with worry, Eilish visits this military hospital twice, trying to locate her son. Eventually she is sent to the hospital’s morgue to look for the body of her son. She finds him, and is horrified to the point of almost losing her mind, when she realizes he’s been physically tortured.

The rest of the book is similarly harrowing. Eilish’s father is whisked out of the country by Aine. Eventually, Eilish, still missing her husband and son, makes the difficult decision to flee Ireland with her youngest son, and teenage daughter, Molly. The three of them have a frightening journey across the border, and are kept in an encampment with others who are trying to leave.

The last scene in the book is shockingly familiar. Her daughter, Molly, begs her mother not to go, but Eilish and her children are herded onto an intertube boat and set out to sea.

Paul Lynch is a marvelous writer. The story is riveting in part because it is not so far removed from present day movements toward authoritarianism around the world. In his narrative, Lynch does not use dialogue tags, yet, it's very clear who’s speaking. This takes tremendous skill.

In Eilish, we have a fascinating character. She is fiercely committed to her family, but her greatest psychological flaw is denial. Her refusal to leave Ireland when she first has the chance, results in the death of her children, and herself.

This book is agonizing. Lynch gives us a frightening vision of a future under authoritarian rule. As a reader, I felt both empathy and frustration with Eilish, who clings to the belief that the destructive forces in her country are temporary, and that she and her family can survive if they just hold out a little longer.