Ask the Author: Paul Lynch

“Ask me a question.” Paul Lynch

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Paul - there is one page in the Prophet Song that will haunt me for the rest of my life. Yet is the most authentic, tragic page I have ever read or will ever read. I guess my question is cryptic - does this page haunt you and did it hurt to write such a wonderfully, lyrical, yet deeply tragic page of writing? I guess this requires you to guess that page and not provide plot spoilers. Either way - it was life changing.
Paul Lynch Hi Ash. Many thanks for your question. I know the hellpage you are talking about. Let's just say, I avoided writing it for months. I didn't know how to go about writing that chapter, let alone that page. And then one night I had a dream that revealed to me the coordinates for how to write the chapter. Everything else followed. If you are going to ask the reader to stare into the abyss, there must me some grace and poetry. I do hope there was that.
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Paul, I am a bluewater sailor and I find your descriptions of the ocean and storms at sea so vivid and realistic. Are you a sailor? Have you crossed oceans?
Paul Lynch Hi Daria. Many thanks for your question. I am but a land lubber, though I grew up a few miles away from the sea in Donegal and my father sailed the Pacific as an officer in the merchant fleet before I was born. I grew up hearing his yarns about ship-wrecking typhoons, waves that could break super-tankers in two and other sea adventures...
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More a request than a question: Grace had a tremendous effect on me and it was your own reading – incantation, almost – of an extract that brought me to it, so I wondered whether you had plans for further readings? (Perhaps you won’t mind me adding that the blue-violet light through which the closing words are spoken creates as indelible an impression as anything I have ever read.) Many thanks.
Paul Lynch Hi Glinsky. Many thanks for your question and for sharing your thoughts about GRACE. There is indeed another recording in the offing for my latest novel BEYOND THE SEA — I hope to have it sooner rather than later, in advance of FSG's US publication in 2020. When I have it I'll post it here. My very best to you.
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