Grace
WINNER OF THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2018
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION, THE WILLIAM SAROYAN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WRITING 2018 & FRANCE'S PRIX LITTÉRATURE MONDE (2019)
Winter is closing in and Ireland is in the grip of famine. Early one October morning, Grace's mother snatches her from sleep, brutally cuts her hair and tells her: ‘You are the strong one now.’
Her mother fits her up in men's clothes and casts her out, as she is no longer safe at home. With her younger brother Colly in tow, she sets off on a remarkable journey against the looming shadow of her country's darkest hour.
Paul Lynch is the award-winning author of five novels — Prophet Song, Beyond the Sea, Grace, The Black Snow and Red Sky in Morning. His most recent novel, Prophet Song, won the 2023 Booker Prize and the 2024 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and was shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year. He has previously won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year and France’s Prix Libr’à Nous for Best Foreign Novel, among other prizes. He has been shortlisted for many international awards, including the Walter Scott Prize, France’s Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger and Prix Littérature-Monde, and the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature.
In 2024, he was appointed Distinguished Writing Fellow at Maynooth University and was elected to Aosdána, which honours artists who have made outstanding contributions to the creative arts in Ireland. He lives in Dublin.