Nicola Sturgeon has said she wishes more British politicians would read Paul Lynch’s Booker Prize-winning novel Prophet Song.
Ms Sturgeon, a former Scottish First Minister, also expressed a wish that more political leaders would read fiction “as a matter of principle”.
“Prophet Song” tells the story of a mother of four children who works as a scientist whose husband is kidnapped by the newly formed Irish secret police, and her struggle to keep the family together under a tyrannical government.
Discussing the book with the Irish author at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Ms Sturgeon also touched on how one of the book’s characters gets into a boat and said the novel should in some ways serve as “a wake-up call for all of us”.
Scotland’s former First Minister said: “She leads a life that we can all recognise in this country and that is why what is happening to her suddenly does not seem far away. It is something we can imagine.”
Ms Sturgeon added: “She gets on a boat. And yet the debate in this country about people coming here on boats is very inhumane and is fuelling something really horrific in parts of this country.
“You know, in some ways this is a book that I would like political leaders in certain other parts of the United Kingdom to read and understand.
“Incidentally, I wish more political leaders would read novels, just as a general principle.”
Lynch said the “Trojan horse of this book is that it takes what you think is the other and makes him you.”
Ms Sturgeon, whose love of books is well known, interviewed Lynch at the book festival on Sunday.
She asked the author why he did not explain in his book how Ireland suddenly found itself “in the grip of fascism”.
I want you to take the mythical aspects of this book with you
He said we don’t know when the book is set and it “could well be counterfactual.”
When asked why he did not put politics at the forefront, Lynch said it was because “I want the mythical aspects of the book to be what you take away.”
He said: “This book is about what was, what will be and what will continue to be. Because there is a wretchedness in human existence that we cannot get rid of. And war is what we are. And that is what this book is about.”
“Prophet Song” is Lynch’s fifth novel and won him the 2023 Booker Prize.
