- Source: Paul Lynch (writer)
Paul Lynch (born 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 2018 Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award and the 2023 Booker Prize, for Prophet Song.
Early life and education
Lynch was born in Limerick in the south-west of Ireland in 1977; his parents and all his family are from Limerick and other parts of County Limerick. 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. They 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. 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). His mother was an adult literacy teacher, and Paul is the eldest child of his parents' three children.
Lynch has not lived in County Donegal since 1995. He read English and Philosophy at University College, Dublin (UCD), but did not graduate. He is a longtime resident of Dublin, where he was formerly both deputy chief sub-editor and chief film critic for The Sunday Tribune, before he turned to writing fiction.
Writing career
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 Étranger (Best Foreign Book Award). 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. It explores themes of emigration, racism and brutality and was described by NPR's Alan Cheuse as the work of a "lapidary young master".
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. The novel was shortlisted for many prizes and won France's Prix Libr'à Nous for best foreign novel. In The Sunday Times Ireland, Theo Dorgan called the book "a significant achievement".
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 and was shortlisted for many awards, including The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. 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."
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. 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, and won France's Prix Gens de Mers in 2022.
Lynch's fifth novel, Prophet Song, has been described as "a chilling study of Ireland becoming a fascist state". According to The New York Times, the novel received mixed reviews in Ireland and Britain upon its initial publication. Prophet Song was described by The Guardian as "an impressive novel in stylistic as well as political terms", and it went on to receive the Booker Prize for 2023.
Literary themes and style
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.
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.
Personal life
Lynch has two children and is separated from his wife.
Awards
2013: Best Newcomer at Bord Gáis Irish Books of the Year, shortlisted
2014: Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, finalist
2014: Prix du Premier Roman, nominated
2015: Prix du Roman Fnac, nominated
2015: Prix Femina, nominated
2016: Ireland Francophonie Ambassadors' Literary Award, shortlisted
2016: Prix des Lecteurs Privat, winner
2016: Prix Libr'à Nous for Best Foreign Novel, winner
2018: The Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, winner
2018: The Walter Scott Prize, shortlisted
2018: The William Saroyan International Prize, shortlisted
2019: Grand Prix de L'Héroïne, shortlisted
2019: Prix Littérature Monde, shortlisted
2019: Prix Jean-Monnet de Littérature Européenne, shortlisted
2020: Ireland Francophonie Ambassadors' Literary Award, winner
2022: Prix Gens de Mer, winner
2023: Booker Prize, winner
Novels
—— (2013). Red Sky in Morning. London: Quercus.
—— (2014). The Black Snow. London: Quercus.
—— (2017). Grace. London: Oneworld Publications.
—— (2019). Beyond the Sea. London: Oneworld Publications.
—— (2023). Prophet Song. London: Oneworld Publications.
References
External links
Paul Lynch website
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- The Beatles
- Lana Del Rey
- One Direction
- Assassin's Creed
- Game of Thrones
- Marvel Cinematic Universe: Fase Empat
- Rupert Grint
- Skotlandia
- Daftar personel WWE
- Penghargaan Grammy ke-55
- Paul Lynch (writer)
- Paul Lynch
- Brian Lynch (writer)
- Scott Lynch
- The Day of the Jackal (TV series)
- Paul (given name)
- Dune (1984 film)
- Prophet Song
- David Lynch
- 2023 Booker Prize