Flesh

Brought to you by Penguin.**WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025**Through chance, luck and choice, one man's life takes him from a modest apartment in Hungary to the elite society of London - in this captivating new novel about the forces that make and break our lives Fifteen-year-old Istvan lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he becomes isolated, with his neighbour - a married woman - as his only companion. When a clandestine relationship begins between them, his life spirals out of control. As the years pass, Istvan moves from the army to the circles of London's elite. His competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth win him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely.'Brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money' David Nicholls'One of the most astonishing books I've ever read' Dua Lipa'So much searing insight into the way we live now' Observer'I was tearing through Flesh, I never once slowed down' Jennette McCurdy'Brilliance on every page' Samantha Harvey'Hugely entertaining, gripping like a thriller' The Times(c) David Szalay 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Brought to you by Penguin.**WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025**Through chance, luck and choice, one man's life takes him from a modest apartment in Hungary to the elite society of London - in this captivating new novel about the forces that make and break our lives Fifteen-year-old Istvan lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he becomes isolated, with his neighbour - a married woman - as his only companion. When a clandestine relationship begins between them, his life spirals out of control. As the years pass, Istvan moves from the army to the circles of London's elite. His competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth win him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely.'Brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money' David Nicholls'One of the most astonishing books I've ever read' Dua Lipa'So much searing insight into the way we live now' Observer'I was tearing through Flesh, I never once slowed down' Jennette McCurdy'Brilliance on every page' Samantha Harvey'Hugely entertaining, gripping like a thriller' The Times(c) David Szalay 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

**WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025** ‘Brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money’ David Nicholls ‘ I was tearing through [ Flesh ], I never once slowed down ’ Jennette McCurdy ‘ Brilliance on every page ’ Samantha Harvey ‘ So much searing insight into the way we live now ’ Observer Through chance, luck and choice, one man’s life takes him from a modest apartment in Hungary to the elite society of London – in this captivating new novel about the forces that make and break our lives Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he becomes isolated, with his neighbour – a married woman – as his only companion. When a clandestine relationship begins between them, his life spirals out of control. As the years pass, István moves from the army to the circles of London’s elite. His competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth win him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely. ‘An astonishingly moving portrait of a man’s life’ Booker Prize Judges, 2025 ‘A revelatory novel’ Sunday Times ‘Pure brilliance from the first to the (devastating) last sentence’ India Knight ‘Refreshing, illuminating and true’ Financial Times ‘One of the most astonishing books I’ve ever read’ Dua Lipa ‘Hugely entertaining, gripping like a thriller’ The Times ‘Visceral and compelling’ Gary Stevenson ‘Exciting, propulsive, emotional’ Sarah Jessica Parker *A BOOK OF THE YEAR for the Guardian , Observer , Financial Times , Sunday Times , Independent , GQ and Daily Telegraph *

**WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025** ‘Brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money’ David Nicholls ‘ I was tearing through [ Flesh ], I never once slowed down ’ Jennette McCurdy ‘ Brilliance on every page ’ Samantha Harvey ‘ So much searing insight into the way we live now ’ Observer Through chance, luck and choice, one man’s life takes him from a modest apartment in Hungary to the elite society of London – in this captivating new novel about the forces that make and break our lives Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he becomes isolated, with his neighbour – a married woman – as his only companion. When a clandestine relationship begins between them, his life spirals out of control. As the years pass, István moves from the army to the circles of London’s elite. His competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth win him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely. ‘An astonishingly moving portrait of a man’s life’ Booker Prize Judges, 2025 ‘A revelatory novel’ Sunday Times ‘Pure brilliance from the first to the (devastating) last sentence’ India Knight ‘Refreshing, illuminating and true’ Financial Times ‘One of the most astonishing books I’ve ever read’ Dua Lipa ‘Hugely entertaining, gripping like a thriller’ The Times ‘Visceral and compelling’ Gary Stevenson ‘Exciting, propulsive, emotional’ Sarah Jessica Parker *A BOOK OF THE YEAR for the Guardian , Observer , Financial Times , Sunday Times , Independent , GQ and Daily Telegraph *

'Brilliance on every page' Samantha Harvey, author of Orbital ‘ Flesh is a wonderful novel – so brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money' David Nicholls, author of One Day A propulsive, hypnotic novel about a man who is unravelled by a series of events beyond his grasp. Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he is unfamiliar with the social rituals at school and soon becomes isolated, with his neighbour – a married woman close to his mother’s age – as his only companion. These encounters shift into a clandestine relationship that István himself can barely understand, and his life soon spirals out of control. As the years pass, he is carried gradually upwards on the currents of the twenty-first century’s tides of money and power, moving from the army to the company of London’s super-rich, with his own competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth winning him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely. Spare and penetrating, Flesh is the finest novel yet by a master of realism, asking profound questions about what drives a life: what makes it worth living, and what breaks it. Chosen as a ‘Best Book of 2025’ by the Guardian , Observer , Financial Times , Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail 'It’s been a long time since I’ve been swallowed whole by a novel the way I was by this one ... So much searing insight into the way we live now' Observer 'Compelling and elegant, merciless and poignant. David Szalay is an extraordinary writer ' Tessa Hadley

'Brilliance on every page' Samantha Harvey, author of Orbital ‘ Flesh is a wonderful novel – so brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money' David Nicholls, author of One Day A propulsive, hypnotic novel about a man who is unravelled by a series of events beyond his grasp. Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he is unfamiliar with the social rituals at school and soon becomes isolated, with his neighbour – a married woman close to his mother’s age – as his only companion. These encounters shift into a clandestine relationship that István himself can barely understand, and his life soon spirals out of control. As the years pass, he is carried gradually upwards on the currents of the twenty-first century’s tides of money and power, moving from the army to the company of London’s super-rich, with his own competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth winning him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely. Spare and penetrating, Flesh is the finest novel yet by a master of realism, asking profound questions about what drives a life: what makes it worth living, and what breaks it. Chosen as a ‘Best Book of 2025’ by the Guardian , Observer , Financial Times , Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail 'It’s been a long time since I’ve been swallowed whole by a novel the way I was by this one ... So much searing insight into the way we live now' Observer 'Compelling and elegant, merciless and poignant. David Szalay is an extraordinary writer ' Tessa Hadley

Ali has been hiding in an attic since civilization collapsed eight weeks ago. When the plague hit, her neighbors turned into mindless, hungry, homicidal maniacs.Daniel has been a loner his entire life. Then the world empties and he realizes that being alone isn't all it's cracked up to be.Finn is a former cop who is desperate for companionship, and willing to do anything it takes to protect the survivors around him.When the three cross paths they band together; sparks fly, romance blooms in the wasteland and Ali, Daniel and Finn bend to their very human needs in the ruins of civilization.Lust, love and trust all come under fire in Flesh as the three battle to survive, hunted through the suburban wastelands.

Ali has been hiding in an attic since civilization collapsed eight weeks ago. When the plague hit, her neighbors turned into mindless, hungry, homicidal maniacs.Daniel has been a loner his entire life. Then the world empties and he realizes that being alone isn't all it's cracked up to be.Finn is a former cop who is desperate for companionship, and willing to do anything it takes to protect the survivors around him.When the three cross paths they band together; sparks fly, romance blooms in the wasteland and Ali, Daniel and Finn bend to their very human needs in the ruins of civilization.Lust, love and trust all come under fire in Flesh as the three battle to survive, hunted through the suburban wastelands.

**WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025** ‘Brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money’ David Nicholls ‘Anyone can pick up Flesh and appreciate it’ Jennette McCurdy ‘ Brilliance on every page ’ Samantha Harvey ‘ So much searing insight into the way we live now ’ Observer Through chance, luck and choice, one man’s life takes him from a modest apartment in Hungary to the elite society of London – in this captivating new novel about the forces that make and break our lives Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he becomes isolated, with his neighbour – a married woman – as his only companion. When a clandestine relationship begins between them, his life spirals out of control. As the years pass, István moves from the army to the circles of London’s elite. His competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth win him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely. ‘An astonishingly moving portrait of a man’s life’ Booker Prize Judges, 2025 ‘A revelatory novel’ Sunday Times ‘Pure brilliance from the first to the (devastating) last sentence’ India Knight ‘Refreshing, illuminating and true’ Financial Times ‘One of the most astonishing books I’ve ever read’ Dua Lipa ‘Hugely entertaining, gripping like a thriller’ The Times ‘Visceral and compelling’ Gary Stevenson ‘Exciting, propulsive, emotional’ Sarah Jessica Parker *A BOOK OF THE YEAR for the Guardian , Observer , Financial Times , Sunday Times , Independent , GQ and Daily Telegraph *

**WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025** ‘Brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money’ David Nicholls ‘Anyone can pick up Flesh and appreciate it’ Jennette McCurdy ‘ Brilliance on every page ’ Samantha Harvey ‘ So much searing insight into the way we live now ’ Observer Through chance, luck and choice, one man’s life takes him from a modest apartment in Hungary to the elite society of London – in this captivating new novel about the forces that make and break our lives Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he becomes isolated, with his neighbour – a married woman – as his only companion. When a clandestine relationship begins between them, his life spirals out of control. As the years pass, István moves from the army to the circles of London’s elite. His competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth win him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely. ‘An astonishingly moving portrait of a man’s life’ Booker Prize Judges, 2025 ‘A revelatory novel’ Sunday Times ‘Pure brilliance from the first to the (devastating) last sentence’ India Knight ‘Refreshing, illuminating and true’ Financial Times ‘One of the most astonishing books I’ve ever read’ Dua Lipa ‘Hugely entertaining, gripping like a thriller’ The Times ‘Visceral and compelling’ Gary Stevenson ‘Exciting, propulsive, emotional’ Sarah Jessica Parker *A BOOK OF THE YEAR for the Guardian , Observer , Financial Times , Sunday Times , Independent , GQ and Daily Telegraph *

Shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize Finalist for the Kirkus Prize Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence From Booker Prize finalist and "the shrewdest writer on contemporary masculinity we have" ( Esquire ), a "captivating...hypnotic...virtuosic" ( The Baffler ) novel about a man whose life veers off course due to a series of unforeseen circumstances. Teenaged Istv?n lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. Shy and new in town, he is a stranger to the social rituals practiced by his classmates and is soon isolated, drawn instead into a series of events that leave him forever a stranger to peers, his mother, and himself. In the years that follow, Istv?n is born along by the goodwill, or self-interest, of strangers, charting a rocky yet upward trajectory that lands him further from his childhood, and the defining events that abruptly ended it, than he could possibly have imagined. A collection of intimate moments over the course of decades, Flesh chronicles a man at odds with himself--estranged from and by the circumstances and demands of a life not entirely under his control and the roles that he is asked to play. Shadowed by the specter of past tragedy and the apathy of modernity, the tension between Istv?n and all that alienates him hurtles forward until sudden tragedy again throws life as he knows it in jeopardy. "Spare and detached on the page, lush in resonance beyond it" (NPR), Flesh traces the imperceptible but indelible contours of unresolved trauma and its aftermath amid the precarity and violence of an ever-globalizing Europe with incisive insight, unyielding pathos, and startling humanity.

Shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize Finalist for the Kirkus Prize Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence From Booker Prize finalist and "the shrewdest writer on contemporary masculinity we have" ( Esquire ), a "captivating...hypnotic...virtuosic" ( The Baffler ) novel about a man whose life veers off course due to a series of unforeseen circumstances. Teenaged Istv?n lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. Shy and new in town, he is a stranger to the social rituals practiced by his classmates and is soon isolated, drawn instead into a series of events that leave him forever a stranger to peers, his mother, and himself. In the years that follow, Istv?n is born along by the goodwill, or self-interest, of strangers, charting a rocky yet upward trajectory that lands him further from his childhood, and the defining events that abruptly ended it, than he could possibly have imagined. A collection of intimate moments over the course of decades, Flesh chronicles a man at odds with himself--estranged from and by the circumstances and demands of a life not entirely under his control and the roles that he is asked to play. Shadowed by the specter of past tragedy and the apathy of modernity, the tension between Istv?n and all that alienates him hurtles forward until sudden tragedy again throws life as he knows it in jeopardy. "Spare and detached on the page, lush in resonance beyond it" (NPR), Flesh traces the imperceptible but indelible contours of unresolved trauma and its aftermath amid the precarity and violence of an ever-globalizing Europe with incisive insight, unyielding pathos, and startling humanity.