The book begins ominously. Here I quote from the book jacket so as not to inadvertantly spoil anything, "On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland's newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist."
While the story is thrilling and sad and infuriating, shocking in fact, it is quite remarkable in how beautifully written and human it is. Lynch manages to maintain a truly gripping story while focused on the protagonist, Eilish Stack. We see her, almost become her, as she goes through the different roles she plays in daily life: scientist, citizen, neighbor, mother, wife, daughter.
These roles are a unified whole, as any person in reality is, and Lynch deftly crafts the plot toward it's intense revelations, weaving the rise of a tyrannical state. In each of Eilish's roles we find the tentacles of tyranny insinuating itself. The characters refer to it as the worm. An apt description for a sinister and deadly presence that is like an inescapble parasitic infection.
Lynch's descriptions of the rise of tyranny in his characters' every day lives frequently gave me pause. I found myself thinking about the present political chaos in the US, where I live; the remarkable reach of state power in the span of just a few months since Trump's inauguration. The ambiguous limits of the executive within our tricameral federal structure. Small solace to the fear and disorganization already wrought.
The fact is, violent politcal upheaval is a truly terrifying thing. Much of Lynch's portrayal of the fictional rise of tyranny in modern day Ireland reminded me precisely of Peter Turchin's ominous, and importantly non-fiction, End Times (see my review of it here: https://aiptcomics.com/2025/02/24/end-times-turchin-elites-political/ ). Turchin points out that the historical data points to two key variables related to political disintigration and revolution: popular immiseration (society feeling frustrated and miserable), and overproduction of elites. Lynch describes, in a horrifyingly human and intimate way, an attempt to cull the dissenting elites, by force. Unfortunately, this appears to be a common occurrence in reality, based on Turchin's historical analysis. Frighteningly for me, Turchin believes the US is experiencing such a period of political disintegration.
Regardless of these troubling times, Prophet Song is truly a beautiful literary work of art. I feel as though I know Eilish intimately and I felt greatly for her every step of the way. I can't recommend this book enough.
