Tania's Reviews > Prophet Song

"...history is a silent record of people who did not know when to leave."

I almost gave up on this year's Booker Prize winner about Dublin's descent into totalitarianism. The writing style is incredibly dense with no paragraph breaks and minimal use of punctuation. I'm glad I stuck with Prophet Song though as the author definitely has a way with words, and there are some incredibly powerful lines and beautiful descriptions in this bleak and brutal dystopian.

Living in South Africa, this book cuts incredibly close to the bone. Every day we see more and more warning signs and more and more people leaving the country because of corruption and crime and a government that only cares about enriching themselves, but so many of us choose to stay even though we've seen this slow descent into hell happening to neighbouring countries. It's not that easy to leave everything and everyone you know and love.

Through Eilish's perspective we see that it's easy to be in denial about what's happening if you've been in the boiling water all along. As a mother of four she also has to deal with everyday issues like work; a father with dementia; a baby teething and teenagers being teenagers while her country is imploding around her. This narrative reminds us that refugees lived normal lives just like us until they didn't.

Out of the six booker price nominees I read my favourite is still Old God's Time, but Prophet Song now shares second place with The Bee Sting.