In Graphics | Meet Irish writer Paul Lynch, winner of Booker Prize For 'Prophet Song'

“This was not an easy book to write, the rational part of me believed I was dooming my career by writing this novel though I had to write the book anyway we do not have a choice in such matters.” These are the words uttered by Irish writer Paul Lynch after he won the Booker Prize for his fifth novel Prophet Song, set in an imagined Ireland that is descending into tyranny. It was described as a “soul-shattering and true” novel that “captures the social and political anxieties of our current moment” by the judging chair, Esi Edugyan. Paul Lynch, 46, spent four years writing the book and was brought to the thought by the long years of the civil war in Syria and the “West’s indifference.” With this win, Lynch becomes the fifth Irish author to win the Booker Prize, after Iris Murdoch, John Banville, Roddy Doyle and Anne Enright, the organisers of the competition said. But who is Paul Lynch and what is his award-winning book, Prophet Song, all about?