Flesh | David Szalay

David Szalay's 2025 Booker prize winning novel, Flesh, is a paired-down, minimalistic, unsettling novel, which is brilliant, but does feel like you've been kicked in the gut once you put it down.

The novel follows the life of István, a young Hungarian man whose inner world is sparse to say the least. The novels opens with a shockingly uncomfortable teenage sexual encounter, which then sets the tone for the rest of István's life. A life that will be shaped by trauma, chance and passivity. Istvan's life drifts from a juvenile detention centre, to the army, to London, where, through a serious of bizarre and chance encounters, he enters the world of the wealthy elite.

The major events of the novel are only hinted at and not depicted in any detail which leaves huge gaps in the narration. This choice leaves you feeling like you never get to know the characters on any deep level. The prose is lean, stripping things down to the bare minimum, so readers are forced to experience the rhythm of István's life, rather then being shown it.

The big ideas and themes of the novel are depicted in what's not said, rather than in metaphors. The book is obsessed with male physicality and how men are conditioned not to feel. How life just happens to you whether you like it or not. This is where the real sense of bleakness comes from. Not just in the events, but in István's passivity towards his own destiny.

This is an interesting book, and will leave you feeling unsettled and probably unsatisfied. István isn't someone you know, he's someone you observe. Flesh is a book that refuses to give you what you expect, and afterwards you'll feel empty. Which, I guess, is Szalay's intention.