Irish writer Paul Lynch wins Booker Prize with dystopian novel 'Prophet Song'
London (AP): Irish writer Paul Lynch has won the Booker Prize for fiction with what judges called a "soul-shattering" novel about a woman's struggle to protect her family as Ireland collapses into totalitarianism and war.
"Prophet Song," set in a dystopian fictional version of Dublin, was awarded the 50,000-pound (USD 63,000) literary prize at a ceremony in London on Sunday. Canadian writer Esi Edugyan, who chaired the judging panel, said the book is "a triumph of emotional storytelling, bracing and brave" in which Lynch "pulls off feats of language that are stunning to witness".
Lynch, 46, had been the bookies' favourite to win the prestigious prize, which usually brings a big boost in sales. His book beat five other finalists from Ireland, the UK, the US and Canada, chosen from 163 novels submitted by publishers.
Lynch has called "Prophet Song", his fifth novel, an attempt at "radical empathy" that tries to plunge readers into the experience of living in a collapsing society.
"I was trying to see into the modern chaos," he told the Booker website. "The unrest in Western democracies. The problem of Syria the implosion of an entire nation, the scale of its refugee crisis and the West's indifference. I wanted to deepen the reader's immersion to such a degree that by the end of the book, they would not just know, but feel this problem for themselves."
The five prize judges met to pick the winner on Saturday, less than 48 hours after far-right violence erupted in Dublin following a stabbing attack on a group of children.
Edugyan said that immediate events didn't directly influence the choice of winner. She said that Lynch's book "captures the social and political anxieties of our current moment" but also deals with "timeless" themes.
The other finalists were Irish writer Paul Murray's "The Bee Sting"; American novelist Paul Harding's "This Other Eden"; Canadian author Sarah Bernstein's "Study for Obedience"; US writer Jonathan Escoffery's "If I Survive You"; and British author Chetna Maroo's "Western Lane".
Edugyan said the choice of winner wasn't unanimous, but the six-hour judges' meeting wasn't acrimonious.
"We all ultimately felt that this was the book that we wanted to present to the world and that this was truly a masterful work of fiction," she said.
Founded in 1969, the Booker Prize is open to English-language novels from any country published in the UK and Ireland and has a reputation for transforming writers' careers. Previous winners include Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie and Hilary Mantel.
Lynch received his trophy from last year's winner, Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka, during a ceremony at Old Billingsgate, a grand former Victorian fish market in central London.
The evening included a speech from Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman who was jailed in Tehran for almost six years until 2022 on allegations of plotting the overthrow of Iran's government a charge that she, her supporters and rights groups denied.
She talked about the books that sustained her in prison, including Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale", set in an oppressive American theocracy.
"Books helped me to take refuge into the world of others when I was incapable of making one of my own," Zaghari-Ratcliffe said. "They salvaged me by being one of the very few tools I had, together with imagination, to escape the Evin (prison) walls without physically moving."
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T'gana BC panel seeks reports over infant's death, family alleges caste abuse
Hyderabad (PTI): The Telangana Commission for Backward Classes on Monday sought reports from state government officials on the death of an infant following alleged assault and caste abuse against her family members in Nagarkurnool district while visiting a temple fair.
In separate letters, Commission Chairman G Niranjan urged Endowments Department Commissioner S Harish and Nagarkurnool district Collector Badavath Santhosh to furnish the reports within three days.
Niranjan drew the officials' attention to media reports on the death of the two-month-old baby at Kummera village in the district and alleged caste discrimination and denial of entry to the temple fair to the baby's family belonging to a BC community.
BJP OBC Morcha's state unit president G Anand Goud alleged inadequate response by the police in the incident and demanded a transparent investigation into the incident.
Alleging that the deceased baby's father was attacked in the incident, he also demanded action against the attackers.
Goud told reporters that BJP's state unit president N Ramachander Rao would visit the village on February 24 and meet the baby's family members.
Meanwhile, a BRS delegation met DGP B Shivadhar Reddy and demanded a comprehensive inquiry into the incident.
The BRS leaders sought action against a person who allegedly attacked the infant's parents.
BC associations have held protests over the past few days regarding the alleged caste discrimination against the deceased infant's family members.
Police said on Sunday that four persons were arrested in connection with the cases registered after the family alleged that the baby died following an "assault" by a group of villagers. The family also alleged that they were abused in the name of caste in the incident on February 18.
However, a villager, part of the group, lodged a counter-complaint with the police the same day, alleging that he was attacked with stones during a scuffle with the family, sustaining a head injury, following which a case was registered.
The infant died on February 21 and her mother, who belongs to an SC community, also lodged a complaint alleging her daughter died due to the physical assault on the family by some villagers, police said.
