The Booker Prize 2025 Winner

As 2025 nears its close, literary enthusiasts have reason to celebrate a novel that has captured the imagination of readers and critics alike. 

David Szalay’s Flesh, the winner of the 2025 Booker Prize, has become the year’s defining work of fiction, praised for its daring originality and profound emotional resonance. 

Whether you’re curling up in a quiet nook, sipping morning coffee, or sneaking in a few pages between errands, Flesh is a book that demands attention, reflection, and conversation.

Why Flesh Won the Booker Prize

The judges of the Booker Prize selected Flesh for its unparalleled originality and the strength of Szalay’s narrative choices. Roddy Doyle, chair of the judges, described the novel as “singular,” noting that they had never encountered a book quite like it. The decision to award Flesh the prize was unanimous, stemming from the book’s unique tone, its emotional depth, and its innovative use of language or, perhaps more accurately, its sparing use of language.

One of the aspects most praised by the judges was Szalay’s handling of silence and space within the text. “The white space on the page is used so well,” Doyle explained. “It’s as if the author is inviting the reader to fill the space, to observe, almost to create the character with him.” The novel’s minimalist style means that the absence of words becomes as meaningful as the words themselves. Readers learn about István, the protagonist, not through exhaustive description but through subtle clues: we know he cries because someone forbids it, we know he grieves through the blank spaces on the page, and we know he ages by the envy he feels toward another man’s hair. Every word, and every silence, matters.

The judges celebrated Flesh not only for its stylistic innovation but also for its emotional impact. They described it as both dark and joyful, a book that confronts the strangeness and complexity of life while leaving readers grateful for the act of reading itself. The novel’s compelling mix of sparse prose, profound themes, and narrative daring made it stand out among six highly competitive shortlisted works, earning Szalay his first Booker Prize.

The Story of Flesh

At its heart, Flesh is the story of István, a Hungarian teenager whose clandestine affair with a neighbor sets the stage for a life defined by desire, ambition, and disquiet. When István moves to a new town with his mother, he struggles to find his place in the established social order of his school. He eventually forms a connection with a solitary classmate, and their early conversations about sexual curiosity and personal inadequacy hint at the psychological complexity that will follow István into adulthood.

The narrative follows István across decades, tracing his gradual ascent through Hungary’s social landscape and into London’s elite circles. Through a combination of ambition, chance, and personal impulses, he gains wealth and status but these achievements do not fill the void left by the experiences he cannot fully understand or articulate. The novel examines how desire, intimacy, and ambition shape a life, and how unspoken longings and moral compromises can define the human experience.

While Flesh is, on the surface, a story about class ascension and the pursuit of wealth, it is also a meditation on the human body, the unspoken aspects of identity, and the complexity of masculinity. Szalay explores the tension between external success and internal detachment, revealing how societal pressures and personal insecurities intertwine over a lifetime.

Themes and Significance

Several key themes run throughout Flesh, earning it critical acclaim for both its intellectual depth and emotional resonance. One major theme is masculinity and the pressures surrounding male identity. István’s journey reflects the contradictions inherent in modern manhood: the desire to be powerful, desired, and recognized, while simultaneously struggling with vulnerability, insecurity, and the limitations of the body.

Class mobility is another central theme. István rises from relative obscurity in Hungary to the heights of wealth and influence in London. Yet his ascent is portrayed as almost accidental - a series of events that propel him forward rather than a deliberate plan. This exploration of chance, luck, and circumstance in social mobility underscores the novel’s philosophical depth and distinguishes it from traditional narratives of ambition.

The body itself becomes a site of narrative and thematic exploration. Flesh delves into the ways physical experience and desire resist language, forcing both character and reader to confront the unarticulated. Critics have noted that the novel’s minimalism amplifies these themes, creating a sense of intimacy and immediacy: the spaces between words are as telling as the words themselves.

Finally, the novel asks profound questions about life, love, and fulfillment. What drives a life? What makes it worth living? What breaks us along the way? Szalay does not offer easy answers; instead, he presents a life that is as enigmatic, messy, and extraordinary as any real human experience.

About David Szalay

David Szalay, born in Canada, is the first Hungarian-British writer to win the Booker Prize. His diverse life experiences, living in Lebanon, the UK, Hungary, and now Vienna, inform his global perspective and nuanced storytelling. Before Flesh, Szalay published six works of fiction, earning recognition for his distinct voice and innovative narratives. His debut, London and the South-East, won the Betty Trask and Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prizes, while All That Man Is was awarded the Gordon Burn Prize and Plimpton Prize for Fiction, in addition to being shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2016. Szalay also won the Edge Hill Prize for his short story collection Turbulence in 2019 and was named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2013.

Szalay’s writing is characterized by a focus on human vulnerability, the intricacies of social systems, and the fleeting nature of desire. Flesh represents the culmination of his craft, combining technical mastery with emotional insight in a work that resonates with readers across cultures.

Critical Reception

Critics have hailed Flesh as “refreshing,” “revelatory,” and “a moving work of art with a plot that compels and surprises.” Its minimalist prose, coupled with deep emotional resonance, challenges readers to engage actively with the text. The novel’s structure, spanning decades and geographic spaces, creates a rich tapestry of human experience, where small moments of desire, envy, and connection carry enormous weight.

The Booker Prize judges emphasized how the novel’s sparse language heightens its impact. By leaving much unsaid, Szalay allows readers to inhabit István’s perspective, making the act of reading a participatory experience. It is a novel that lingers, prompting reflection on identity, mortality, and the intricate web of circumstances that shape a life.

Flesh by David Szalay is more than a Booker Prize winner; it is a testament to the power of literature to explore the subtleties of human experience. Its themes of desire, class, masculinity, and the body’s unspoken narratives are rendered with elegance and precision, making it a novel that resonates long after the final page.

Whether you are a longtime literary enthusiast or a casual reader seeking a book that sparks conversation and reflection, Flesh is a compelling choice for 2025. It is a book that challenges, surprises, and ultimately celebrates the extraordinary complexity of human life.