Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

 You might have to be in the mood to read this book but once you start you will want to continue to the end. 

When a country is taken over by internal forces and the rule of law is changed to suit those in power everyone needs to be scared. 

What is so disturbing about this book is we can see that this is what has happened in history and continues to happen all around the world. It's the Handmaid tale, or 1984 or what took place in 1930's Germany with 'the enabling act' of the nazi's when they were elected to power. 

It's as if all free societies have to be constantly vigilant against those who would deprive people of their freedoms under the guise of actions designed to protect those freedoms. 

In America it's project 2025. In the UK its we need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, and oh we need to control protest we don't agree with. 

In the media, much of which is controlled by individuals on the right, we see how unbalanced reporting has become. While social media gets round the traditional newspaper Barons it is even more a place where disinformation, conspiracy theories abound, and you are left feeling some people really are not that bright when they repeat these things as fact.

So Paul Lynch's novel "Prophet Song" is a very human telling of what it looks and feels like for a family. when a society collapses from within. Laws are changed. New powers are given to secret bodies. People disappear. Living hand to mouth becomes the order of the day. And how long do you leave it before you flea to safety with your family. Before your husband is taken? Your child goes missing? Your child dies with their body showing the marks of torture? And you face finally the journey to escape with your remaining children with all the perils that come with such action. While I would say it's a great read it is also one that remains in your head with how uncomfortable it makes you feel. Without protest, without brave people speaking out, without an independent judiciary, without being able to vote people out of power we are always a hairs breath from losing precious freedom. 

God grant us
individuals 

who will never be silenced
in speaking truth to power

and may we 

not collude

for a quiet life

with those

who lie when in power

abuse their position

and so allow 

the poor to go unheard

and the refugee to be scapegoated

to ease our conscience.