Flesh

From Booker Prize winning author David Szalay, comes a propulsive, hypnotic novel about a man whose life is derailed by a series of events that he is unable to control.

Fifteen-year-old István 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 soon becomes isolated, with his neighbour — a married woman close to his mother’s age — as his only companion. But as these periodical encounters shift into a clandestine relationship that István himself can barely understand, his life soon spirals out of control, ending in a violent accident that leaves a man dead.

What follows is a rocky trajectory that sees István emigrate from Hungary to London, where he moves from job to job before finding steady work as a driver for London’s billionaire class. At each juncture, his life is affected by the goodwill or self-interest of strangers. Through it all, István is a calm, detached observer of his own life, and through his eyes we experience a tragic twist on an immigrant “success story,” brightened by moments of sensitivity, softness and Szalay’s keen observation.

Flesh reveals István’s life in intimate moments, with lovers, employers and family members, charted over the course of decades. As the story unfolds, the tension between what is seen and unseen, what can and cannot be said, hurtles forward until finally — with everything at stake — sudden tragedy again throws life as István knows it in jeopardy. Spare and penetrating, Flesh traces the imperceptible but indelible contours of unresolved trauma and its aftermath amid the precarity and violence of an ever-globalising Europe with incisive insight, unyielding pathos and startling humanity.

ISBN

9781529932423

Format

Paperback

Publisher

Vintage, (19 March 2026)

Number of Pages

368

Weight

256 grams

Language

English

Dimensions

196 x 128 x 23 mm

Categories:

Interior Life Displacement Exile and Migration Modern and Contemporary