We are thrilled to congratulate David Szalay on winning the 2025 Booker Prize for his extraordinary novel Flesh. The award celebrates one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary fiction — an author whose cool precision and emotional depth have redefined the art of modern storytelling.
Flesh, Szalay’s sixth novel, follows the life of a man named István through youth, struggle, and transformation, tracing themes of masculinity, displacement, and human connection in prose of striking restraint and clarity.
“So real that it becomes brilliant — you almost feel affectionate towards it.”
— Roddy Doyle, Chair of the 2025 Booker Prize panel
Teenaged István lives with his mother in a quiet Hungarian apartment block. Timid and new to the area, he struggles to navigate the social rituals of his classmates, quickly becoming an outsider. Gradually, he is pulled into a chain of experiences that leave him estranged from peers, his mother, and even himself. In the years that follow, István is carried along by the unpredictable kindness—or self-interest—of others, moving along a jagged but upward path that takes him ever farther from his childhood and the defining events that shattered it, in ways he could never have foreseen.
What the press is saying
The Guardian writes: “Szalay’s sixth novel traces the life of one man, István, from his youth to mid-life. Written in spare prose, the book explores masculinity, class, migration, trauma and power.”
According to the Washington Post, “The novel is marked by sparse prose and nuanced explorations of masculinity and alienation… so real that it becomes brilliant.”
On the Booker Prize official site: “Spanning decades — from a Hungarian housing estate to the mansions of London’s rich elite — Flesh is a hypnotic novel about the forces that shape us, written in prose of remarkable precision.”
Al Jazeera notes: “Hungarian-British writer David Szalay has won the prestigious Booker prize… Flesh recounts the life of taciturn István, from a teenage relationship with an older woman to his unlikely rise within London high society.”
Own a piece of literary history
For readers and collectors alike, Szalay’s Booker Prize win marks a defining moment in twenty-first-century literature. His novels – including All That Man Is, Turbulence and now Flesh – explore what it means to be human in a world of shifting identities and quiet transformations.
? Browse signed first editions by David Szalay and add this Booker Prize winner’s work to your collection today.
Sources: The Guardian | Washington Post | Booker Prizes Official Site | Al Jazeera