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  • Published: 24 March 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529932423
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $28.00

Flesh




WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025, David Szalay’s captivating and astonishingly moving novel about the forces that make and break our lives

Through chance, luck and choice, one man’s life takes him from a modest apartment in Hungary to the elite society of London…

Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he becomes isolated, with his neighbour – a married woman – as his only companion. When a clandestine relationship begins between them, his life spirals out of control.

As the years pass, István moves from the army to the circles of London’s elite. His competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth win him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely.

  • Published: 24 March 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529932423
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $28.00

About the author

David Szalay

David Szalay is the author of six works of fiction, including London and the South-East, for which he was awarded the Betty Trask and Geoffrey Faber Memorial prizes, All That Man Is, for which he was awarded the Gordon Burn Prize and Plimpton Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Turbulence, which won the Edge Hill Prize. Born in Canada, he grew up in London, and now lives in Vienna. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages.

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Praise for Flesh

All That Man Is looks increasingly like the masterpiece of British fiction from the past few years

Evening Standard

Szalay's writing is exact and true and always subtly intelligent; this book is bracing and thrilling and chilling

Tessa Hadley, praise for All That Man Is

It's a rare and wonderous event when a novel changes the way you look at the world around you; and this was the case with All That Man Is

William Boyd, praise for All That Man Is

Szalay's prose is frequently brilliant, remarkable for its grace and economy. He has a minimalist's gift for the quick sketch, whether of landscapes or human relationships. He studs his pages with sometimes startlingly lovely images... All That Man Is has a new urgency now that the post-Cold War dream of a Europe of open borders and broad, shared identity has come under increasing question

Garth Greenwell, praise for All That Man Is

He is an exceedingly gifted writer who can move in any direction he wishes... Szalay's prose is exacting without being fussy... Szalay's own stream of perception never falters in its sensitivity and probity. This book is a demonstration of uncommon power. It is a bummer, and it is beautiful

New York Times, praise for All That Man Is

David Szalay is capable of conjuring tenderness from any situation... Readers will find a great deal to enjoy in these pages, and further evidence that Szalay is one of the best fortysomething writers we have

Guardian, praise for All That Man Is

Discover more

Article
Flesh by David Szalay wins the Booker Prize 2025

Propulsive and hypnotic, Flesh asks profound questions about what drives a life: what makes it worth living, and what breaks it.

Article
Booker Prize shortlist 2025

The shortlist for the 2025 Booker Prize has been announced, with four Penguin Random House titles named this year.