Hungarian-British creator’s novel explores a person’s seek for dwelling throughout Hungary and London
LONDON:
David Szalay gained the 2025 Booker Prize for his novel Flesh on Monday, changing into the primary Hungarian-British creator to win one in all prime awards within the English-speaking world.
Written in spare prose – characterised by brevity and an absence of pointless element – the e book follows a person caught in a collection of occasions past his management over many years. It charts his rise from a housing property in Hungary to the mansions of London’s super-rich.
“A meditation on class, energy, intimacy, migration and masculinity, Flesh is a compelling portrait of 1 man, and the formative experiences that may reverberate throughout a lifetime,” organisers of the award ceremony in London stated in an announcement.
Along with the 50,000-pound ($67,000) prize for the winner, in addition to a 2,500-pound awards to every of the shortlisted authors and translators, the writers additionally achieve a lift in reputation and profit from elevated e book gross sales.
“Despite the fact that my father is Hungarian, I by no means felt fully at dwelling in Hungary. I suppose, I’m at all times a little bit of an outsider there and dwelling away from the UK and London for therefore a few years I additionally had an identical feeling about London,” Szalay instructed BBC Radio. “I actually needed to write down a e book that stretched between Hungary and London and concerned a personality who was not fairly at dwelling in both place.”
The novel was the Canadian-born creator’s sixth work of fiction. He was shortlisted in 2016 for his e book All That Man Is which instructed the story of 9 males at varied life phases.
“We had by no means learn something fairly prefer it. It’s, in some ways, a darkish e book however it’s a pleasure to learn,” Roddy Doyle, chair of judges this yr, stated within the assertion shared by the organisers. “I don’t suppose I’ve learn a novel that makes use of the white house on the web page so properly. It’s as if the creator is inviting the reader to fill the house, to look at – virtually to create – the character with him.”
($1 = 0.7451 kilos)

