Flesh

**WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025** Brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money David Nicholls I was tearing through [Flesh], I never once slowed down Jennette McCurdy Brilliance on every page Samantha Harvey So much searing insight into the way we live now ObserverThrough chance, luck and choice, one man s life takes him from a modest apartment in Hungary to the elite society of London in this captivating new novel about the forces that make and break our livesFifteen-year-old Istv n lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he becomes isolated, with his neighbour a married woman as his only companion. When a clandestine relationship begins between them, his life spirals out of control.As the years pass, Istv n moves from the army to the circles of London s elite. His competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth win him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely. An astonishingly moving portrait of a man s life Booker Prize Judges, 2025 A revelatory novel Sunday Times Pure brilliance from the first to the (devastating) last sentence India Knight Refreshing, illuminating and true Financial Times One of the most astonishing books I ve ever read Dua Lipa Hugely entertaining, gripping like a thriller The Times Visceral and compelling Gary Stevenson Exciting, propulsive, emotional Sarah Jessica Parker*A BOOK OF THE YEAR for the Guardian, Observer, Financial Times, Sunday Times, Independent, GQ and Daily Telegraph*