David Szalaywins BookerPrize for ‘Flesh’

David Szalay won the 2025 Booker Prize for his novel ‘Flesh’ on Monday, becoming the first Hungarian-British author to win one of top awards in the English-speaking world.
Written in spare prose – characterised by brevity and a lack of unnecessary detail – the book follows a man caught in a series of events beyond his control over decades. It charts his rise from a housing estate in Hungary to the mansions of London’s super-rich.
“A meditation on class, power, intimacy, migration and masculinity, Flesh is a compelling portrait of one man, and the formative experiences that can reverberate across a lifetime,” organisers of the award ceremony in London said in a statement.
In addition to the 50,000-pound ($67,000) prize for the winner, as well as a 2,500-pound awards to each of the shortlisted authors and translators, the writers also gain a boost in popularity and benefit from increased book sales.
“Even though my father is Hungarian, I never felt entirely at home in Hungary. I suppose, I’m always a bit of an outsider there and living away from the UK and London for so many years I also had a similar feeling about London,” Szalay told BBC Radio.