# David Szalay wins the 2025 Booker Prize for Flesh

British-Hungarian writer David Szalay has won the 2025 Booker Prize for his novel *Flesh*, a stripped-back story about a Hungarian emigré who makes and loses a fortune.

The AFP report carried by the Bangkok Post says Szalay won at a ceremony in London and received the £50,000 prize after beating five other shortlisted authors. That makes the result straightforward on its face: a major literary award, a well-known shortlist and a winning novel that the judges clearly regarded as the year’s strongest long-form fiction in English.

The packet says the judges considered 135 books before narrowing the field to six. That context matters because it shows the scale of the prize’s selection process and why winning it carries weight in the literary world. Booker winners often see their books quickly enter broader public discussion, and *Flesh* appears likely to do the same.

Szalay’s novel was described as an unflattering exploration of masculinity, written in sparse prose and following its protagonist from military service in Hungary to work for the ultra-wealthy in London. The story also includes affairs with older women and fighting in Iraq, according to the report. Those details suggest a novel interested in movement between class worlds, war and emotional dislocation.

The judges’ comments were strong. Chair Roddy Doyle called the book “singular” and “extraordinary,” which helps explain why the novel kept dominating conversations among the panel. When a prize jury singles out a work in that way, it often signals more than simple consensus; it suggests the book is doing something stylistically distinct.

Szalay’s earlier history with the prize adds another layer. He had already been shortlisted in 2016 for *All That Man Is*, and the new win shows a sustained Booker presence rather than a sudden breakthrough. The packet also notes that he is the author of six works of fiction and was born in Montreal before growing up in London and later living in Vienna.

The shortlist itself was competitive, including former Booker winner Kiran Desai and other prominent authors. That is part of what gives the result significance: Szalay did not win in a weak year, but in a field that included prior champions and widely discussed novels.

For readers outside literary circles, the headline is simple enough. A major English-language prize has gone to a novel that is being praised for its style, its bleakness and its focus on the making and unmaking of a life. For Szalay, it is the biggest recognition yet for a body of work already well known to Booker judges.