The Booker Prize 2025 To Flesh by David Szalay

David Szalay, Booker Prize 2025 winner, with his novel Flesh © David Parry

November brings revelation. Yesterday night was the happiest day for one of six writers shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, as the winner has been finally announced. Following The Nobel Prize in Literature awarded to the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, the Booker Prize followed the pattern handing the award to the first Hungarian-British author - David Szalay - and his sixth work of fiction, Flesh.

According to the Chair of judges, Roddy Doyle, "The judges discussed the six books on the shortlist for more than five hours. The book we kept coming back to, the one that stood out from the other great novels, was Flesh - because of its singularity. We had never read anything quite like it. It is, in many ways, a dark book but it is a joy to read... I don’t think I’ve read a novel that uses the white space on the page so well. It’s as if the author, David Szalay, is inviting the reader to fill the space, to observe - almost to create - the character with him. The writing is spare and that is its great strength. Every word matters; the spaces between the words matter. The book is about living, and the strangeness of living and, as we read, as we turn the pages, we’re glad we’re alive and reading - experiencing - this extraordinary, singular novel."

Flesh follows a man from adolescence to old age as he is unravelled by a series of events beyond his grasp. It asks profound questions about what drives a life, what makes it worth living, and what breaks it.

Born in Canada, David Szalay has lived in Lebanon, the UK, Hungary, and now Vienna.  He is the author of six works of fiction that have been translated into over 20 languages, as well as several BBC radio dramas. 

Last year the Booker Prize was won by Samantha Harvey for her Orbital.