Join fellow fiction enthusiasts to discuss critically acclaimed novels. This class focuses on Flesh (2025) by David Szalay.
Winner of the 2025 Booker Prize, this dark, spare novel centers on the rocky unraveling life of protagonist István from adolescence to old age. István is an isolated teenager growing up in Hungary at the start of the book, befriended by a bored and lonely woman in her 40s, living in the opposite flat. Over time, he experiences a series of traumas beyond his control and remains emotionally detached, even as his fortunes upon moving to London change dramatically. Sex in the book is transactional, violence occurs without warning, and fortune comes and goes through random luck in István’s otherwise ordinary and numb existence. Szalay’s minimalist prose captures the essence of István’s empty life.
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