Hungarian-born British writer David Szalay has won the 2025 Booker Prize for his novel, Flesh. He was awarded a cash prize of £50,000 and the Prize trophy, Iris, which was presented to him by last year’s winner, Samantha Harvey, at a ceremony in London on Monday. The novel was chosen from 153 works that were submitted for the prize.

The winning work is described on the Booker Prizes website as a “…propulsive, hypnotic novel about a man who is unravelled by a series of events beyond his grasp”.

Novelist Roddy Doyle, chair of the jury, said about Flesh, “‘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, David Szalay, is inviting the reader to fill the space, to observe – almost to create – the character with him. The writing is spare and that is its great strength. Every word matters; the spaces between the words matter. The book is about living, and the strangeness of living and, as we read, as we turn the pages, we’re glad we’re alive and reading – experiencing – this extraordinary, singular novel.”

A review on Scroll said, '“Through the svelte form of his novel, Szalay imagines what the modern man should...

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