FLESH

Is this a work of genius, a classic of our time, and worthy winner of the Booker Prize 2025, or a rather bleak portrait of one man’s life from teenager to old man which is hard to relate to? It certainly divided the Den between those who found it austere and those who were blown away by Szalay’s understated and powerful straight-talking prose. A slow burn of a read which haunts you long after finishing.

With his powerful, minimalist style of writing, Szalay partitions the life of Hungarian István from teenager through to old age. We first meet 15-year-old István living with his mother in an apartment in an unnamed town in Hungary. Obsessed with sex, he begins a relationship with an elder married neighbour. This is followed by a barely mentioned but life-affirming action in Iraq, to a period of mid-life success and good fortune in London, before seeing out his final years back in Hungary. István appears no more than a passive observer on life’s treadmill. He is an example that whoever we are, life just happens around us and whatever deviations we take, it is still short teenage years, long mid-life, short final years – a sobering thought.

Szalay’s minimalist prose means you never really know what is transpiring in István’s head. When asked a question about how he feels, István’s answer is ‘Yeah, ok’ until suddenly Szalay gives us a glimpse of what life does to you. Having served in war in Iraq, István finds himself adrift, ‘He realises that the things that are so important to him, the things that happened, and that he saw there, the things that left him feeling that nothing would ever be the same again – they just aren’t important here.’ This a powerful comment on war, when you’re in it, it’s all consuming, but when you’re outside, it suddenly becomes unremarkable. When key events occur, there is no build up in Szalay’s writing. They are thrown into the mix with an almost casual abandon. This is a brutal reflection on life and the realisation that no one knows when that unexpected life changing moment might alter life’s course forever.

István is not a particularly likeable character, he performs unexplained acts of kindness alongside unexplained acts of violence without the reader understanding his inner thoughts. The damage he does to those around him is crushing. Szalay’s straight talking, unambiguous prose combined with his cagey and uncommunicative protagonist make this both a compelling and discomfiting read. We would be interested to hear what your book club thought of this Booker prize winning read as it certainly divided opinions in the Den.