Books by Paul Lynch
“The Booker Prize is the biggest fiction award in the UK and Ireland. Paul Lynch won the ÂŁ50,000 prize in 2023 for Prophet Song, a darkly prophetic novel set in a near-future Ireland that the New York Times described as ‘an unsettling dystopian parable.’ In it, a biologist and mother of four must cope alone after the secret police take her husband into custody and the country descends into civil war. It’s earned comparisons with The Handmaid’s Tale and 1984, but Lynch has downplayed the ideological elements of the book” Read more...
Cal Flyn, Five Books Editor
Interviews where books by Paul Lynch were recommended
Books by Irish Authors
Home to the Blarney Stone — said to bestow “the gift of the gab” — and with a long tradition of valuing bards and wandering storytellers, it is no surprise that Ireland has produced some of the most recognised names in the English language canon. Considering the small population, Irish authors continue to punch well above their weight in publishing. Here we bring you a selection of Irish authors that have been recommended on Five Books by experts, from bestselling and award-winning contemporary writers to both famous and less well-known classic authors.
Booker Prize-Winning Novels
As we know that many of our readers like to work their way through the list of Booker-winners, we’ve compiled an overview the winning titles from the last two decades.
Award-Winning Novels of 2023, recommended by Cal Flyn
The enormous variety of new, beautifully-blurbed books being published every month presents an agony of choice for the casual reader. Luckily, literary prize shortlists offer a shortcut to discovering some of the best novels of the year. Here, Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn offers a helpful round-up of the award-winning novels of the 2023 season and a few notable runners-up. Read more fiction recommendations on Five Books
The Best Novels of 2023: The Booker Prize Shortlist, recommended by Cal Flyn
Every year, the judges for the Booker Prize read more than a hundred books that have been submitted by their publishers in the hope of being recognised by one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards. The 2023 shortlist features a novel-in-stories, an Irish dystopia, and plenty of family drama. See the Booker Prize shortlist 2024.
