What's Next? discussion

“Tradition is nothing more than what everyone can agree on.”

Winner 2023 Booker prize. The novel is a dystopian nightmare and horror show - prophets sing of the end of the world - with the state slipping into facism and ensuing civil war. While based in Dublin, there is nothing uniquely Irish about the outcome; the storyline is separate from Ireland's history of sectarian violence. Given the political environment in many developed countries today, the book could be based anywhere, although it would be naive to expect any reader to change course based on this warning.

Note, all is not lost - "it is vanity to think that the world will end during your lifetime in some sudden event ... the prophets sing not of the end of the world but of what has been done and what will be done to some but not others, that the world is always ending over, and over again in one place but not another, and that the end of the world is always a local event".

Recommended read and 5 stars.