Flesh : WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025

From Booker Prize finalist David Szalay, a propulsive, hypnotic novel, about a man whose future is derailed by a series of events that he is unable to control.

Teenaged István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. Shy and new in town, he is a stranger to the social rituals practiced by his classmates and soon becomes isolated, with his neighbor—a married woman close to his mother’s age, whom he begrudgingly helps with errands—as his only companion. But as these periodical encounters shift into a clandestine relationship that István himself can barely understand, his life soon spirals out of control, ending in a violent accident that leaves a man dead.

What follows is a rocky trajectory that sees István emigrate from Hungary to London, where he moves from job to job before finding steady work as a driver for London’s billionaire class. At each juncture, his life is affected by the goodwill or self-interest of strangers. Through it all, István is a calm, detached observer of his own life, and through his eyes we experience a tragic twist on an immigrant “success story,” brightened by moments of sensitivity, softness, and Szalay’s keen observation.

Fast-paced and immersive, Flesh reveals István’s life through intimate moments, with lovers, employers, and family members, charted over the course of decades. As the story unfolds, the tension between what is seen and unseen, what can and cannot be said, hurtles forward until finally—with everything at stake—sudden tragedy again throws life as István knows it in jeopardy. Spare and penetrating, Flesh traces the imperceptible but indelible contours of unresolved trauma and its aftermath amid the precarity and violence of an ever-globalizing Europe with incisive insight, unyielding pathos, and startling humanity.

'A masterpiece, told with virtuosic economy Pure brilliance from the first to the (devastating) last sentence - India Knight.

'Flesh is at once intricate and spacious, it flows both fast and deep. There's brilliance on every page. Szalay is an ingenious conductor of time, and of the fates and forces that give shape to a life - Samantha Harvey, author of Orbital.

'Spare, visceral, urgent, compelling. This book doesn't f**k around' - Gary Stevenson.

So brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money' David Nicholls

How do I get out of a reading slump? This is the book to do that Rhianna Dhillon, BBC Radio 4

'A revelatory novel' Sunday Times

'So much searing insight into the way we live now' Observer

Refreshing, illuminating and true Financial Times

'Compelling and elegant, merciless and poignant' Tessa Hadley

'One of the year s best novels to date' Daily Mail

Utterly engrossing and I read it all in a day 5* reader review

I was hooked and tried to read this book with any spare moment that I had' 5* reader review

A Best Book of 2025 in the Guardian, Observer, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail