David Szalay has won the 2025 Booker Prize on Monday night for Flesh, a stark and unsettling novel that tracks one man’s life as it bends under class mobility, isolation and illicit desire. The judges unveiled their unanimous decision at Old Billingsgate in London, praising the British-Hungarian author’s sixth novel as a work that defied comparison and stood apart from anything they had encountered in recent years.
Panel chair Roddy Doyle, himself a former Booker Prize winner, said he and his fellow judges “had never read anything quite like it… 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.” Doyle praised the book’s discipline and emotional precision, later adding, “It’s a dark book, but we all found it a joy to read.”
Flesh, published by Jonathan Cape (Penguin Random House UK) in the U.K. and McClelland & Stewart in Canada, follows István, a boy growing up in a quiet Hungarian housing estate whose clandestine relationship with an older neighbor sets off a lifelong chain of consequences.
Szalay tracks István across decades—from military service to chauffeuring London’s ultra-rich—building a portrait critics have described as brilliantly spare and quietly devastating. The narrative’s minimalism has become one of its most lauded qualities as the Guardian called it “a thrilling exploration of what it means to be alive,” while the Sunday Times highlighted Szalay’s ability to render an entire era of modern masculinity through a single character.
Actress and publisher Sarah Jessica Parker, writer Chris Power, novelist Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ and author Kiley Reid joined Doyle on the 2025 judge panel. Their deliberations lasted over five hours before they ultimately reached their unanimous decision for this £50,000 prize. Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, said the judges found the novel “spare, disciplined, urgent, honest and heartbreaking,” adding that Szalay “breaks new ground” with this work.
The win marks a milestone for Jonathan Cape, now celebrating its tenth Booker Prize victory. It also extends David Szalay’s long-running reputation as one of the most original contemporary writers in English, following his earlier shortlist appearance in 2016 for All That Man Is. His career spans six novels, multiple radio dramas, and accolades including the Betty Trask Prize and the Gordon Burn Prize. Szalay was also choose to be one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2013, being praisedfor his mastery of lean, unflinching prose.
David Szalay admitted to being “a bit dazed” in a BBC interview shortly after the announcement. “I did maybe too thorough a job of convincing myself that I wasn’t going to win in order to get through the evening without too much stress, and now I have to catch up a bit in my head,” he said. “But it’s fantastic, of course.”
Many prominent cultural figures have already pushed Flesh into the spotlight. Stormzy recorded an excerpt for a short film screened at the ceremony, while Dua Lipa featured the novel in her book club, calling it a “tense and gripping read.” Not only that, early reactions across X, Instagram, and book forums show readers rallying behind the decision, framing the win as overdue recognition for an author many regard as a quiet titan of contemporary realism.
As praise continues to mount, the novel’s core themes, including masculinity, class mobility, power, and the raw physicality of existence, are driving fresh debate across the literary world — how they fit into today’s cultural landscape. Readers, myself included, feel the full force of Szalay’s craft: the stripped-back language, the emotional ambiguity, and the stark, unsettling moral terrain he refuses to soften. It’s the kind of win that feels earned, but also one that invites debate about what stories we elevate and why.
Still, there’s little doubt that Flesh is already shaping up to be one of the defining literary moments of the year. The Booker judges may have reached unanimity, but the public conversation now asks a larger question about why this particular narrative resonates so sharply in 2025. What’s clear is that Flesh has already entered the year’s cultural bloodstream, and shows no sign of loosening its grip.
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