Paul Lynch (writer)

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Paul Lynch (born 9 May 1977) is an Irish novelist known for his poetic, lyrical style and exploration of complex themes. He has published five novels and has won several awards, including the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award.[1] He received the 2023 Booker Prize for his fifth novel, Prophet Song.[2]

Biography[edit]

Lynch was born in Limerick in the south-west of Ireland in May 1977; his parents and all his family are from Limerick and other parts of County Limerick.[3][4] However, when he was nine months old, his parents moved to the north of County Donegal in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland, where he was raised.[3][4] His parents settled in the north of Inishowen, a peninsula on the northern coastline of Ulster, with Lynch spending the rest of his childhood and teenage years at Malin Head and, later, in Carndonagh.[3][5] His parents moved to Inishowen because of his father's job with the then Coast and Cliff Rescue Service (CCRS), which later became, in 1991, the Irish Marine Emergency Service (IMES; now called the Irish Coast Guard).[4] He has not lived in County Donegal since 1995.[3] He now lives in Dublin, his longtime home,[3] where he was formerly both deputy chief sub-editor and chief film critic for The Sunday Tribune, before he turned to writing fiction. 

His debut novel, Red Sky in Morning, was the subject of a six-publisher auction in London, and won him acclaim in the United States and France, where the book was a finalist for France's Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger (Best Foreign Book Award).[6] The novel was inspired by a TV documentary about the excavation of Duffy's Cut, a site near Philadelphia where, in the 1830s, Irish emigrants, mainly from Ulster, were discovered in an unmarked mass grave.[4] It explores themes of emigration, racism and brutality and was described by NPR's Alan Cheuse as the work of a “lapidary young master”.[7]

Lynch's second novel, The Black Snow, describes the return of an Irish emigrant to his native community in County Donegal and the subsequent descent into tragedy when a byre catches fire.[8] The novel was shortlisted for many prizes and won France's Prix Libr'à Nous for best foreign novel.[9] In Sunday Times Ireland, Theo Dorgan called the book “a significant achievement”.[10]

His third novel, Grace (2017), is both a bildungsroman and picaresque set during the Irish Famine and tells the story of a young girl's struggle for survival. The novel won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year prize[1] and was shortlisted for many awards, including The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.[11] In a review, The New York Times said: "Lynch is a sure-footed tightrope walker...his lush, poetic prose [in Grace] deliberately and painfully acts as a foil to the reality of the famine.”[12]

Lynch's fourth novel, Beyond the Sea (2019), was inspired by a true event and is an existential tale involving two castaways set on a boat in the Pacific Ocean.[13] The novel has been compared to the work of Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, Herman Melville, William Golding, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Pablo Neruda by various reviewers,[13] and won France's Prix Gens de Mers in 2022.[13]

Lynch's fifth novel, Prophet Song, is "a chilling study of Ireland becoming a fascist state".[14] Described by The Guardian as "an impressive novel in stylistic as well as political terms",[14] it received the 2023 Booker Prize.[15]

Literary themes and style[edit]

Lynch's novels often focus on the trials of the human spirit and examine metaphysical and existentialist themes in both Irish and exotic settings. His work explores topics such as alienation, displacement, suffering, reality, belief, religion, and transcendence, as well as meditations on memory and identity.[16][17][18][19][20]

Lynch's writing has been described as "bold, grandiose, mesmeric," and he has been compared to authors such as Cormac McCarthy, William Faulkner, Herman Melville, Seamus Heaney, and Samuel Beckett. He has been praised for his ability to blend poetic language with gritty realism and for his insights into the human condition. He is considered one of the most important Irish writers of his generation.[21][22]

Awards[edit]

Novels[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Doyle, Martin (30 May 2018). "'Grace' by Paul Lynch wins Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award". The Irish Times.
  2. ^ "Booker Prize 2023: Ireland's Paul Lynch wins with Prophet Song". 26 November 2023 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  3. ^ a b c d e The Nine O'Clock Show, RTÉ Radio 1, Thursday, 24 August 2023 (Paul Lynch interviewed by Oliver Callan; go to 35 minutes and 37 seconds into the show). https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/the-nine-oclock-show/programmes/2023/0824/1401405-the-nine-oclock-show-thursday-24-august-2023/
  4. ^ a b c d 'The Arts Interview: Paul Lynch' (The Limerick Leader, 9 November 2014). https://www.limerickleader.ie/news/news/102369/The-Arts-Interview-Paul-Lynch.html
  5. ^ Ireland North (map). O.S.I., Dublin, and O.S.N.I. (part of Land and Property Services), Belfast, 2011.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Doyle, Martin (1 June 2018). "'Grace' by Paul Lynch is June's Book Club pick". The Irish Times.
  7. ^ Cheuse, Alan (4 November 2013). "'Red Sky In Morning' Mixes Forceful Language And Powerful Story". www.npr.org. NPR.
  8. ^ Hamilton, Hugo (29 March 2014). "The Black Snow by Paul Lynch review – raw, savage ... and tender". The Guardian.
  9. ^ "The Black Snow (2014)". Paul Lynch author. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  10. ^ Lynch, Paul (17 January 2019). The Black Snow. Quercus. ISBN 9781782062066. Retrieved 2 August 2023. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  11. ^ McGarry, Patsy (18 April 2018). "Paul Lynch novel 'Grace' nominated for second major award in less than a month". www.irishtimes.com. The Irish Times. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  12. ^ Grant, Katharine (September 2017). "On the Road: Two Children Brave the Irish Famine". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  13. ^ a b c "Beyond the Sea (2019)". Paul Lynch author. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  14. ^ a b Jordan, Justine (1 August 2023). "Irish writers, debuts – and groundbreaking sci-fi: the Booker longlist in depth". The Guardian.
  15. ^ "The Booker Prize 2023". thebookerprizes.com. Retrieved 26 November 2023.
  16. ^ Dorgan, Theo (23 March 2014). "Toil and tragedy; FICTION". go.gale.com. The Sunday Times. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  17. ^ Cheuse, Alan (10 June 2015). "Book Review: 'The Black Snow,' Paul Lynch". www.npr.org. NPR. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  18. ^ Wright, Bert (14 June 2018). "Readers of literary fiction have to do a bit of work sometimes. 'Grace' is worth it". www.irishtimes.com. The Irish Times. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  19. ^ Harrison, M John (5 September 2019). "Beyond the Sea by Paul Lynch review – poetic novel from an Irish prize winner". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  20. ^ Eagleton, Oliver (18 October 2019). "Riders on the calm". www.the-tls.co.uk. The TLS. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  21. ^ Pearson, Michael. "Beyond the Sea: A Novel". www.nyjournalofbooks.com. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  22. ^ Roussel, Frédérique (8 February 2019). ""Nous, les Irlandais, sommes une nation de survivants"". www.liberation.fr/. Libération. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  23. ^ "'Grace' by Paul Lynch wins Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award". The Irish Times.
  24. ^ Babkine, Bernard (25 June 2019). "Grand Prix 2019 de l'Héroïne 'Madame Figaro' : les livres en compétition". Madame Figaro.
  25. ^ "Prix AFD-Littérature Monde 2019". www.etonnants-voyageurs.com.
  26. ^ "Littératures européennes Cognac réduit sa liste de prétendants au prix Jean Monnet". SudOuest.fr. 27 June 2019.
  27. ^ "Come celebrate Paul Lynch at the Ireland Francophonie Ambassadors' Literary Award 2020". France in Ireland. 16 October 2021.
  28. ^ "Paul Lynch, nouveau lauréat du Prix 'Gens de mer' !". www.etonnants-voyageurs.co. 2022m.
  29. ^ Marshall, Alex (26 November 2023). "Paul Lynch Wins Booker Prize for 'Prophet Song'". The New York Times.

External links[edit]

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