- - 'Flesh' author David Szalay makes history with 2025 Booker Prize win

Muvija MNovember 11, 2025 at 2:40 AM

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Booker Prize 2025 winner David Szalay, author of "Flesh" celebrates with the award and book during The Booker Prize 2025 Ceremony at Old Billingsgate on Nov. 10, 2025, in London, England.

David Szalay won the 2025 Booker Prize for his novel "Flesh" on Monday, Nov. 10, becoming the first Hungarian-British author to win one of the 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.

Booker Prize 2025 winner David Szalay, right, author of "Flesh" receives the award from Samantha Harvey, left, onstage during The Booker Prize 2025 Ceremony at Old Billingsgate on Nov. 10, 2025, in London, England.

In addition to the 50,000-pound, or $67,000, prize for the winner, as well as a 2,500-pound award 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.

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"Flesh" was David Szalay's sixth work of fiction. He was shortlisted in 2016 for his book "All That Man Is" which told the story of nine men at various life stages.

"I really wanted to write a book that stretched between Hungary and London and involved a character who was not quite at home in either place," Szalay said.

The novel was the Canadian-born author's sixth work of fiction. He was shortlisted in 2016 for his book "All That Man Is," which told the story of nine men at various life stages.

Booker Prize 2025 winner David Szalay, author of "Flesh" (third right) poses with (L-R) Gaby Wood and judges Sarah Jessica Parker, Chris Power, Ayobami Adebayo, Kiley Reid and Chair of the judging panel Roddy Doyle during The Booker Prize 2025 Ceremony at Old Billingsgate on Nov. 10, 2025.

"We had never read anything quite like it," Roddy Doyle, chair of judges this year, said in the statement shared by the organisers. "It is, in many ways, a dark book, but it is a joy to read."

Doyle added, "I don't think I've read a novel that uses the white space on the page so well. It's as if the author ... is inviting the reader to fill the space, to observe – almost to create – the character with him."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2025 Booker Prize goes to 'Flesh' author David Szalay

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