British-Hungarian David Szalay wins the 2025 Booker Prize with “Flesh”, a tale of tortured masculinity

The author has defied predictions in favor of Kiran Desai’s Indian tale and her family’s story, “Lonely Sonia and Sunny” which took the author twenty years to write.

The Booker Prize, the prestigious literary prize that honors works of fiction in English, was awarded on the evening of November 10 in London to David Szalay, for his sixth novel Meat. He is the first Anglo-Hungarian writer to receive this prestigious award, equivalent to the French Goncourt, which is endowed with 50,000 pounds (56,800 euros).

Born in 1974 in Montreal (Canada), she succeeded the British Samantha Harvey, who last year was awarded with orbitalsa short work full of lyrics that follows six astronauts on a space station. “This is quite a risky book, I felt like I was taking a risk by writing it,” he declared on stage, after searching for words for a few seconds.

Moved, he said he started writing this novel after abandoning other literary projects. “I felt a lot of pressure because I really wanted this to be a success”he added. Described by the jury president, Irishman Roddy Doyle, winner of the prize in 1993, as a novel “amazing and unique”, Meat is a tale of tortured masculinity.

Awarded since 1969, the Booker Prize has contributed to the success of authors such as Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Arundhati Roy. It is also the promise of international fame that is synonymous with success in bookstores. In the Meatthe exploration of masculinity takes place through the life of a Hungarian, Istvan, from his youth in his home country to his return there late in life, with most of the story taking place in London, where he emigrated.

This text, with its very neat writing, is a continuation of one of his previous works, It’s All Humanpublished in French in 2018 under the title What is human (Albin Michel Edition). Readers follow nine men aged 17 to 73 years. He was shortlisted for the 2016 Booker. Meat above all it offers insight into the lives of ordinary people. Without ever openly talking about masculinity, David Szalay reiterates that he is actively writing “about life as a physical experience, about what it means to be a living body in the world.”

The author, who now lives in Vienna, stood out at the end of a selection that gave pride to established writers, three of whom have become finalists for the prestigious award. Most importantly, he defied predictions in favor of India’s Kiran Desai and her family’s impressive story, Sonia and Sunny’s loneliness. The author, who took twenty years to write this novel, has established himself in 2006 with Inheritance of Loss (Loss of inheritance), published in French.

Another big contender is England’s Andrew Miller Soil in Winterr, a text that takes readers back to the 1960s, to the English countryside where a snowstorm hits and the lives of two couples find themselves turned upside down. American Susan Choi, writer Flashleft too, empty-handed. His book about the tormented fate of a family between Japan, Korea and the United States fails to convince.

Her compatriot Katie Kitamura also mysteriously failed to win Hearing. The same result occurred with British-American Ben Markovits and his book The Rest of Our Lives. The six finalists will meet on Tuesday with Queen Camilla, who is involved in promoting reading with her foundation, who will welcome them to a reception also in the presence of members of the jury.

What’s new in 2025: organizers recently announced the launch of the Booker Prize for children, which aims to reward works of fiction aimed at readers aged 8 to 12, written or translated into English and published in the UK. The first prize will be awarded in 2027.