Flesh
WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025
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4.1 • 177 Ratings
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
**WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025**
‘Brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money’ David Nicholls
‘Anyone can pick up Flesh and appreciate it’ Jennette McCurdy
‘Brilliance on every page’ Samantha Harvey
‘So much searing insight into the way we live now’ Observer
Through chance, luck and choice, one man’s life takes him from a modest apartment in Hungary to the elite society of London – in this captivating new novel about the forces that make and break our lives
Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he becomes isolated, with his neighbour – a married woman – as his only companion. When a clandestine relationship begins between them, his life spirals out of control.
As the years pass, István moves from the army to the circles of London’s elite. His competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth win him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely.
‘An astonishingly moving portrait of a man’s life’ Booker Prize Judges, 2025
‘A revelatory novel’ Sunday Times
‘Pure brilliance from the first to the (devastating) last sentence’ India Knight
‘Refreshing, illuminating and true’ Financial Times
‘One of the most astonishing books I’ve ever read’ Dua Lipa
‘Hugely entertaining, gripping like a thriller’ The Times
‘Visceral and compelling’ Gary Stevenson
‘Exciting, propulsive, emotional’ Sarah Jessica Parker
*A BOOK OF THE YEAR for the Guardian, Observer, Financial Times, Sunday Times, Independent, GQ and Daily Telegraph*
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Szalay (Turbulence) offers a heartbreaking and revelatory portrait of a taciturn Hungarian man who serially attempts to build a new life after his traumatic adolescence. At 15, István struggles with adjusting to a new town in Hungary. After a married neighbor coerces him into sex, they regularly see each other until they're caught by her husband, whom István accidentally kills by knocking him down the stairs. He's sent to juvenile detention. Once out, he joins the army and fights in the Iraq War, where a good friend dies in an ambush and he feels responsible. István then tries to start over in London, finding work first as a bouncer at a strip club, then as a driver and security guard for a wealthy family. As the gritty narrative unfolds, István presents himself as little more than a hunk of flesh, preyed upon by married women who are hungry for something missing from their own lives. The propulsive narrative is heavy on dialogue, in which István regularly responds with a simple "okay" to questions about how he's doing, though Szalay makes clear that István is far from okay. Near the end, István is forced to make a difficult moral choice, and the outcome starkly reveals the degree to which his life is shaped by fate. This tragedy will leave readers in awe.
Customer Reviews
Sad in fascinating way
Simple, engaging٫ fascinating rich life of one man
Sad heartbreaking but deeply moving like nothing else I have read
What a book!! I am not sure what to do with myself now. This is not a book that gives answers, lessons or happy endings but rather prompts deep reflection and perhaps will leave you with more questions than anything. Not my usual read but i thoroughly enjoyed it