David Szalay Wins 2025 Booker Prize for Flesh

David Szalay, a British author of Hungarian descent, won the 2025 Booker Prize on Monday for his novel "Flesh," beating a competitive shortlist at a ceremony in London's Old Billingsgate market hall. The 51-year-old writer, born in Montreal to a Hungarian father and Canadian mother and raised in the United Kingdom, received the £50,000 award and the prize trophy, known as Iris, presented by last year's winner, Samantha Harvey.

"Flesh" traces the life of István, a taciturn Hungarian man, from his teenage years in a housing estate with his mother through military service, immigration to Britain as a struggling worker, and eventual rise to serving London's ultra-wealthy elite. The narrative, written in spare prose, explores themes of masculinity, class, migration, trauma, sex, and power, leaving significant gaps in the protagonist's story—such as periods of incarceration and service in Iraq—unfilled to emphasize the physical and emotional strangeness of existence. Szalay has described his intent as capturing life as a "physical experience" and the story of a Hungarian immigrant navigating cultural and economic divides in contemporary Europe.

The judging panel, chaired by Irish...