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Literary Fiction · MelancholicA Hungarian teenager's life unfolds from a small town to the wealthy circles of London
Flesh
by David Szalay
2025Easy readFast pace
★ Booker Prize, 2025
A quiet man's life, told in short bursts
The novel follows István from his teenage years in a Hungarian town through service in the army, a spell in England and eventually a place in the world of the very rich. The narration is spare and often silent about what he feels. It won the 2025 Booker Prize.
More about this book
Who
István, a Hungarian man, and the people he meets along the way.
World
Hungary, London and other places.
What makes it different
The prose is spare, with very little dialogue and interior thought.
Feel
Cool and haunting.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- FleshWikipedia