Check out Paul Lynch's reaction to winning the Booker Prize.

Paul Lynch proved the bookies right when he became the sixth Irish writer (after Iris Murdoch, Roddy Doyle, John Banville, Anne Enright, and Anna Burns) to take home the Booker Prize, one of the literary world’s most prestigious awards, at a ceremony in London last night.

The forty-six-year-old Lynch won the £50,000 ($63,000) prize for his “soul-shattering” (and eerily-timely) fifth novel, Prophet Song—a near-future dystopian tale of a woman’s struggle to protect her family as Ireland collapses into totalitarianism and war.

Lynch’s reaction to the announcement was quite lovely:

Here is Lynch’s acceptance speech in full:

‘This was not an easy book to write.’

Watch @paullynchwriter‘s #BookerPrize2023 acceptance speech.https://t.co/o890YuwYOV pic.twitter.com/AgQ65hPGhg

— The Booker Prizes (@TheBookerPrizes) November 26, 2023