How long is it?
336 pages in the Grove Paperback 2024 paperback edition.
Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Speculative Fiction
Prophet Song
Highly regardedBooker Prize, 2023Reading facts
✓ Checked- Reading effort
- 44 / 100Moderate
- Length
- 336 pagesGrove Paperback · 2024
- Reading time
- 6 h 45 minat 50 pages an hour ·
- Pace
- Measured
- Emotional intensity
- 5 / 5
About 6 h 45 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 14 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
In near-future Dublin, molecular biologist Eilish Stack is raising four children when secret police arrive asking for her husband, Larry, a teachers’ union official. After his detention, she struggles to maintain family life as a government wielding emergency powers tightens its control over work, schools and public life. Her father has dementia, her sister in Canada urges her to leave, and Eilish keeps hoping Larry will come home.
Reader notes
Dense blocks of text and dialogue without quotation marks keep the narration close to Eilish’s thoughts and can take adjustment. Bleak and increasingly distressing, the literary dystopia follows political repression through daily domestic decisions, with severe violence and abuse.
How it reads
- Writing style
- Dense · Experimental · Lyrical
- Tone
- Bleak · Intimate · Tense · Unsettling
- Structure
- Linear
- Driven by
- Atmosphere · Character · Relationships
- Point of view
- Third person, limited
- Setting
- Dublin, Ireland
Reading complexity
- Writing
- 4 / 5
- Ideas
- 3 / 5
- Structure
- 2 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 1 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Themes
- Family
- Grief
- Migration and displacement
- Oppression
- Politics and ideology
- Survival
Content notes
- Violence
- Strong
- Sexual content
- Mild
- Swearing
- Mild
- Substance use
- None
- Abuse
- Strong
- Self-harm or suicide
- None
Standing and awards
Highly regarded
- Booker Prize, 2023
- International Dublin Literary Award shortlist, 2025
- Kirkus Prize finalist, 2024
Questions readers ask
Which edition is shown here?
Grove Paperback · 2024 · Paperback. ISBN 9780802163523.
How long does it take to read Prophet Song?
About 6 hours 45 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 336-page Grove Paperback edition. Dense books can take longer.
If you liked this
Edition and details
- Publisher
- Grove Paperback
- Publication year
- 2024
- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 336
- ISBN
- 9780802163523
- Edition language
- English
- Original language
- English
- First published
- 2023
- Genres and form
- Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Speculative Fiction · Science Fiction · Dystopian Fiction · Political Fiction · Politics & Government · Literary fiction · Dystopian · Psychological fiction · Social novel
- Editions
- 7
- Languages
- 2 (English, Unspecified)