Flesh
Flesh by David Szalay, published by Penguin Random House on March 6, 2025, is a 352-page novel that delves into the complexities of human relationships and the impact of societal pressures. The story follows fifteen-year-old Istvan, who, living with his mother in a quiet Hungarian apartment complex, grapples with isolation and the intricacies of social interactions at school. His connection with a married neighbor evolves into a clandestine relationship, setting off a chain of events that leads him into the tumultuous world of wealth and power.
As Istvan navigates the shifting tides of the twenty-first century, he experiences a dramatic ascent from military life to mingling with London’s elite. The narrative explores his conflicting desires for love, intimacy, and status, ultimately revealing how these ambitions can lead to both success and self-destruction. Flesh presents a penetrating examination of the forces that shape a life, raising profound questions about what makes existence meaningful and the fragility of human connections. This edition offers readers a rich exploration of psychological and literary themes, making it a significant addition to contemporary fiction.
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‘A revelatory novel’ Sunday Times
‘Brilliance on every page’ Samantha Harvey, author of Orbital
A propulsive, hypnotic novel about a man who is unravelled by a series of events beyond his grasp.
Fifteen-year-old Istvan 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. These encounters shift into a clandestine relationship that Istvan himself can barely understand, and his life soon spirals out of control.
As the years pass, he is carried gradually upwards on the twenty-first century’s tides of money and power, moving from the army to the company of London’s super-rich, with his own competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth winning him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely.
Spare and penetrating, Flesh is the finest novel yet by a master of realism, asking profound questions about what drives a life- what makes it worth living, and what breaks it.
Chosen as a ‘Best Book of 2025’ by the Guardian, Observer, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail
‘Flesh is a wonderful novel – so brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money’ David Nicholls, author of One Day
‘It’s been a long time since I’ve been swallowed whole by a novel the way I was by this one … So much searing insight into the way we live now’ Observer
‘Compelling and elegant, merciless and poignant. David Szalay is an extraordinary writer‘ Tessa Hadley
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