Paul Lynch

Paul Lynch is the Booker Prize-winning author of five internationally acclaimed novels: Prophet Song, Beyond the Sea, Grace, The Black Snow, and Red Sky in Morning. Widely celebrated for his lyrical style and emotional intensity, Lynch’s novels explore universal themes of the human condition, often drawing comparisons to literary greats such as William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, Seamus Heaney, and Samuel Beckett.

His most recent novel, Prophet Song, won the 2023 Booker Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Prix des Libraires Best Foreign Novel. It has been described as “a prophetic masterpiece” by The Washington Post and “soul-shattering” by the Booker Prize jury. The novel has also been shortlisted for several major international awards, including the Dublin Literary Award, Italy’s Strega European Prize, and the Kirkus Prize in the United States.

Lynch’s earlier novels have earned similar acclaim. Beyond the Sea (2019) was called “mesmerising” by The Wall Street Journal and won France’s 2022 Prix Gens de Mers. Grace (2017) won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize and the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature. The Black Snow (2014) received France’s Prix Libr’à Nous for Best Foreign Novel and was hailed as “masterful” by The Sunday Times. His debut, Red Sky in Morning (2013), was a finalist for France’s Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger and earned praise from NPR as the work of “a lapidary young master.”

Born in Limerick in 1977 and raised in Co Donegal, Lynch now lives in Dublin. In 2024, he was appointed Distinguished Writing Fellow at Maynooth University where he teaches on the creative writing programme. The same year, he was elected to Aosdána, the Irish academy of artists who have made exceptional contributions to the creative arts. In 2025, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by University of Limerick for his "remarkable contributions to literature". In the same year, he was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. His novels have been translated into over 40 languages.