'Brilliance on every page' Samantha Harvey
'A revelatory novel' Sunday Times
‘So brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money' David Nicholls
‘How do I get out of a reading slump? This is the book to do that’ Rhianna Dhillon, BBC Radio 4
At first there seems to be no reason to deny the body what it wants, whenever it wants it.
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. As these encounters shift into a clandestine relationship, István’s life spirals out of control.
Years later, rising through the ranks from the army to the elite circles of London's super-rich, he navigates the twenty-first century's tides of money and power. Torn between love, intimacy, status, and wealth, his newfound riches threaten to undo him completely.
'So much searing insight into the way we live now' Observer
‘Refreshing, illuminating and true’Financial Times
'Compelling and elegant, merciless and poignant' Tessa Hadley
‘Utterly engrossing and I read it all in a day’ 5* reader review
‘I was hooked and tried to read this book with any spare moment that I had' 5* reader review
A ‘Best Book of 2025’ in the Guardian, Observer, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail
Genre: Literary Fiction
'A revelatory novel' Sunday Times
‘So brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money' David Nicholls
‘How do I get out of a reading slump? This is the book to do that’ Rhianna Dhillon, BBC Radio 4
At first there seems to be no reason to deny the body what it wants, whenever it wants it.
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. As these encounters shift into a clandestine relationship, István’s life spirals out of control.
Years later, rising through the ranks from the army to the elite circles of London's super-rich, he navigates the twenty-first century's tides of money and power. Torn between love, intimacy, status, and wealth, his newfound riches threaten to undo him completely.
'So much searing insight into the way we live now' Observer
‘Refreshing, illuminating and true’Financial Times
'Compelling and elegant, merciless and poignant' Tessa Hadley
‘Utterly engrossing and I read it all in a day’ 5* reader review
‘I was hooked and tried to read this book with any spare moment that I had' 5* reader review
A ‘Best Book of 2025’ in the Guardian, Observer, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"A superb novel, written with great terse authority and allure: mordant, knowing and disturbingly wise." - William Boyd
"In Istvan David Szalay has created a modern existential antihero in the grand tradition of Camus and Dostoevsky. Amid the random accidents and desultory decisions that shape his life, and come to feel like fate, he is at once a cool observer and a towering presence. Taut, spare and perfectly structured, Flesh reads like a gripping thriller which slowly gathers to itself the emotional power of classical tragedy." - Carys Davies
"This is a marvellous novel. Compelling and elegant, merciless and poignant. David Szalay is an extraordinary writer." - Tessa Hadley
"Flesh is at once intricate and spacious, it flows both fast and deep. There's brilliance on every page. Szalay is an ingenious conductor of time, and of the fates and forces that give shape to a life." - Samantha Harvey
"Flesh is a wonderful novel - so brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money." - David Nicholls
"In Istvan David Szalay has created a modern existential antihero in the grand tradition of Camus and Dostoevsky. Amid the random accidents and desultory decisions that shape his life, and come to feel like fate, he is at once a cool observer and a towering presence. Taut, spare and perfectly structured, Flesh reads like a gripping thriller which slowly gathers to itself the emotional power of classical tragedy." - Carys Davies
"This is a marvellous novel. Compelling and elegant, merciless and poignant. David Szalay is an extraordinary writer." - Tessa Hadley
"Flesh is at once intricate and spacious, it flows both fast and deep. There's brilliance on every page. Szalay is an ingenious conductor of time, and of the fates and forces that give shape to a life." - Samantha Harvey
"Flesh is a wonderful novel - so brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money." - David Nicholls
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