Booker Prize 2025: David Szalay wins for his novel 'Flesh'

CanadianHungarianBritish writer David Szalay won the Booker Prize for fiction on Monday for Flesh the story of an ordinary mans life over several decades in which what isnt on the page is just as important as what isSzalay 51 beat five other finalists including favorites Andrew Miller and Kiran Desai to take the coveted literary award which brings a 50000pound USD 66000 payday and a big boost to the winners sales and profileHe was chosen from 153 submitted novels by a judging panel that included Irish writer Roddy Doyle and Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica ParkerDoyle said Flesh a book about living and the strangeness of living emerged as the judges unanimous choice after a fivehour meetingSzalays book recounts the life of taciturn Istvaacuten from a teenage relationship with an older woman through time as a struggling immigrant in Britain to denizen of London high society The author has said he wanted to write about a Hungarian immigrant and about life as a physical experience about what its like to be a living body in the worldDoyle who chaired the judges said Istvaacuten belongs to a group overlooked in fiction a workingclass man He said that since reading it he looks more closely when he walks past bouncers standing in the doorways of Dublin pubsIm kind of giving him a second look because I feel I might know him a bit better said Doyle whose funny poignant stories of workingclass Dublin life won him the 1993 Booker Prize for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha HaIt presents us with a certain type of man that invites us to look behind the faceSzalay who was born in Canada raised in the UK and lives in Vienna was previously a Booker finalist in 2016 for All That Man Is a series of stories about nine wildly different menFlesh was praised by many critics but frustrated others with its refusal to fill in the gaps in Istvaacutens story iquest great swathes of life including incarceration and wartime service in Iraq occur off the page and its stubbornly unexpressive central character whose most common remark is OkayWe loved the spareness of the writing Doyle said We loved how so much was revealed without us being overly aware that it was being revealed Watching this man grow age and learning so much about him despite him in a wayIf the gaps were filled it would be less of a book he saidSzalay was considered an outsider for this years prize but had been rising up bookmakers odds in the days before Mondays ceremonyThe frontrunners according to betting markets were British writer Miller for early1960s domestic drama The Land in Winter and Indian author Desai for globespanning saga The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny her first novel since The Inheritance of Loss which won the Booker Prize in 2006The other finalists were Susan Chois twisty family saga Flashlight Katie Kitamuras tale of acting and identity Audition and midlifecrisis road trip The Rest of Our Lives by Ben MarkovitsThe Booker Prize was founded in 1969 and has established a reputation for transforming writers careers Its winners have included Salman Rushdie Ian McEwan Arundhati Roy Margaret Atwood and Samantha Harvey who took the 2024 prize for space station story OrbitalThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever