Hungarian-born British writer David Szalay has won the 2025 Man Booker Prize for his novel “Flesh”. Jury chair Roddy Doyle noted that the committee had never encountered a work like it, describing it as a dark yet captivating read.
The novel traces the life of a man named Istvan, from his youth in Hungary to the upper crust of London. The laconic text explores themes of masculinity, migration, and trauma. Szalay received the £50,000 prize at a ceremony in London, having previously been shortlisted for the prize in 2016.
Szalay beat out bookmaker favorite Andrew Miller and 2006 laureate Kiran Desai in the final. Since its publication in March, Flesh has attracted a number of high-profile fans, including pop star Dua Lipa, who chose it for her book club, and author Zadie Smith, who told a BBC radio program that the book was “amazing”. Some writers imbue their characters with incredibly complex inner lives, Smith said, but Szalay had the confidence to create a protagonist who reflects little on the events that befall him, making him feel realistic.
Szalay, 51, has published five books. Among them are his 2008 debut, London and the South East, about a sales manager who stocks grocery shelves; Turbulence, a series of interconnected stories in which all the characters fly; and All That Man Is, about men under various stresses.
Szalay became the first British-Hungarian to win the prize, although another Hungarian-born writer, László Krasznahorkai, won the Man Booker International Prize in 2015. Last month, Krasznahorkai was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The Man Booker Prize is awarded annually to the best book in English published in the UK or Ireland. In 2024, Samantha Harvey won with her novel “In Orbit,” set aboard the International Space Station.
