Booker Prize 2023: Irish writer Paul Lynch at an event in London for his novel ‘Prophet Song’ booker prize 2023 has been awarded. Paul Lynch won this award by defeating London-based Indian-origin writer Chetna Maru’s first novel ‘Western Lane’. Paul Lynch (46) has presented a picture of Ireland in the grip of autocracy in ‘Prophet Song’. The novel tells the story of a family grappling with a terrifying new world in which the democratic norms to which they are accustomed begin to disappear.
‘This was not an easy book to write.’
Watch @paullynchwriter's #BookerPrize2023 acceptance speech.https://t.co/o890YuwYOV pic.twitter.com/AgQ65hPGhg
— The Booker Prizes (@TheBookerPrizes) November 26, 2023
Paul Lynch got 50 thousand pounds
After winning this prestigious award, which carries a prize money of 50,000 pounds, Lynch said, I was trying to look at modern anarchy. I tried to look at the unrest in Western democracies. The problem of Syria, the scale of the refugee crisis and the indifference of the West. Lynch has become the fifth Irish writer to win this award. Earlier, Ireland’s Iris Murdoch, John Banville, Roddy Doyle and Anne Enright had won this prestigious award. Lynch was presented with the award by Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunathilaka at an awards ceremony held at Old Billingsgate, London. Karunathilaka was last year’s Booker winner for ‘The Seven Moons of Mali Almeida’. Kenya-born Indian-origin Chetna Maru was also among the six writers contending for the award this year.
Chetna Maru’s novel based on British Gujarati environment
Chetna Maru’s novel ‘Western Lane’ is based on the British Gujarati environment. Members of the group that selected the winner of the Booker Prize praised the novel for its use of the game of squash as a metaphor for complex human emotions. The story of the novel is woven around an 11-year-old girl named Gopi and her relationship with her family. When his work was included in the final list, Maru said that it would be appropriate to call it a sports novel. It has also been called a coming-of-age novel, a domestic novel, a novel about grief, a novel about the immigrant experience, she said. Recently a friend asked me if there was something in the book about a detective story, with Gopi trying to find her way, piecing together small gestures, actions and fragments of overheard conversations.
Paul Lynch’s signature poetic writing style
Apart from this, Sarah Bernstein’s novel ‘Study for Obedience’, Jonathan Escoffery’s ‘If I Survive You’, Paul Harding’s ‘The Other Eden’, and Paul Murray’s ‘The Bee Sting’ were contenders for the award this time. Each contender who makes it to the final list of the award will be given £2,500. Paul Lynch is known throughout the world for his poetic writings. Till now five of his novels have been published. He writes on complex subjects. He has won several awards, including the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award.