Flesh by David Szalay

Flesh
By David Szalay

Genre: Literary Fiction | Psychological Fiction | Contemporary European Fiction
Recommended Age: Adults

🏆 Winner of the 2025 Booker Prize

One man's life. A series of unforeseen events. A lifetime shaped by forces beyond his control.

Growing up in Hungary, shy teenager István finds himself isolated from his peers, drawn into circumstances that will forever alter his life. Over the decades that follow, he moves through a world shaped by the goodwill and self-interest of strangers, gradually drifting further from his childhood and the trauma that defined it. As he navigates intimacy, ambition, masculinity, and the roles society expects him to play, unresolved wounds continue to shape his journey. With haunting prose and remarkable psychological insight, David Szalay delivers a powerful portrait of alienation, identity, and the fragile forces that shape a human life.