David Szalay wins Booker Prize award for 'extraordinary' novel Flesh

“The writing is spare, and that is its great strength. Every word matters," said Irish author Roddy Doyle, chairman of the Booker Prize judges.

David Szalay arriving for the announcement of the 2025 Booker Prize winner at an award ceremony and dinner in Old Billingsgate, London.  Picture: Ian West/PA Wire

Author David Szalay has won the Booker Prize for his novel Flesh. 

The rags-to-riches tale which explores class and power, was described as an “extraordinary, singular novel” by the chairman of the judges, Irish author Roddy Doyle.

An extract from the book, performed by rapper Stormzy, was screened at the London ceremony, which was attended by celebrity guests including The White Lotus actor Jason Isaacs, comedian Sara Pascoe, Gavin And Stacey’s Ruth Jones and veteran comedian  Lenny Henry.

Szalay, who was previously shortlisted in 2016 for All That Man Is, has received £50,000 and a trophy, presented to him by last year’s winner, Samantha Harvey.

The author’s sixth work of fiction, a meditation on power, tracks the life of teenage Istvan from Hungary, who eventually moves from the army to the company of London’s super-rich.

Former Booker Prize winner Doyle said: “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.

“At the end of the novel, we don’t know what the protagonist, Istvan, looks like, but this never feels like a lack; quite the opposite.

“Somehow, it’s the absence of words — or the absence of Istvan’s words — that allows us to know Istvan.

“Early in the book, we know that he cries because the person he’s with tells him not to; later in life, we know he’s balding because he envies another man’s hair; we know he grieves because, for several pages, there are no words at all.

“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.” 

The panel, which included Sex And The City star Sarah Jessica Parker, considered 153 books and was looking for the best work of long-form fiction by writers of any nationality, written in English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between October 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025.

Szalay is not the only writer of Hungarian heritage to have won a Booker prize, as László Krasznahorkai, who won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, won the International Booker Prize in 2015.

Previous winners of the Booker Prize include Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, and Hilary Mantel.