Flesh by David Szalay has been named the winner of the Booker Prize 2025. As winner of the prize, he received £50,000 and a trophy, presented to him by last year’s winner Samantha Harvey.
The event was broadcast live as a special episode of BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, hosted by Samira Ahmed. It was also livestreamed on the Booker Prizes’ YouTube and Instagram channels, with additional red-carpet coverage – hosted by comedian, broadcaster and author Shabaz Ali – posted on the Booker Prizes’ Instagram and TikTok accounts. Watch the livestream here.
The Booker Prize is the world’s most significant award for a single work of fiction. The prize is open to authors from anywhere in the world, writing in English, and published in the UK and/or Ireland. It has rewarded and celebrated world-class talent for over 55 years, helping shape the canon of 20th and 21st century literature. Previous winners of the prize include Salman Rushdie, J.M. Coetzee, Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, Hilary Mantel, Marlon James, Bernardine Evaristo and Douglas Stuart.
Flesh was selected as the winning book by the 2025 judging panel, who all attended the ceremony. The panel was chaired by critically acclaimed writer and 1993 Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle, the first Booker Prize winner to chair a Booker judging panel. He was joined by fellow judges Booker Prize-longlisted novelist Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀; award-winning actor, producer and publisher Sarah Jessica Parker; writer, broadcaster and literary critic Chris Power; and New York Times bestselling and Booker Prize-longlisted author Kiley Reid. They considered 153 books and were looking for the best work of long-form fiction by writers of any nationality, written in English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between 1 October 2024 and 30 September 2025.
Written in spare prose, Flesh – Szalay’s sixth work of fiction – is a propulsive novel about a man who is unravelled by a series of events beyond his grasp. Spanning decades, it charts István’s rise from a housing estate in Hungary to the mansions of London’s super rich. A meditation on class, power, intimacy, migration and masculinity, Flesh is a compelling portrait of one man, and the formative experiences that can reverberate across a lifetime.
Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize 2025 Chair of judges, says:
‘The judges discussed the six books on the shortlist for more than five hours. The book we kept coming back to, the one that stood out from the other great novels, was Flesh – because of its singularity. We had never read anything quite like it. It is, in many ways, a dark book but it is a joy to read.
‘At the end of the novel, we don’t know what the protagonist, István, looks like but this never feels like a lack; quite the opposite. Somehow, it’s the absence of words – or the absence of István’s words – that allow us to know István. Early in the book, we know that he cries because the person he’s with tells him not to; later in life, we know he’s balding because he envies another man’s hair; we know he grieves because, for several pages, there are no words at all.
‘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.’
Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, added:
‘When the five judges took their places at the winner meeting, in the same room in Fortnum & Mason where they had first met in early February, they sat in the same seats. And they reflected, not only on the circularity of that moment after nine months of reading together, but on the curious fact that they had discussed half of the books that ended up on their shortlist that very first day. Those set a high standard, and by the end of the process the judges were so loath to part company with any of the six that they kept talking for five hours.
‘ Flesh was among the books they had discussed on day one. The judges returned to it, again and again, and felt more invested in it every time. After a third reading, they struggled to think of another writer whose work they could compare it to. They found it spare, disciplined, urgent, honest and heartbreaking. With Flesh, they all agreed, David Szalay breaks new ground.
‘I share the judges’ excitement over the work of an author who has been writing with ferocious and stark commitment for many years.
‘As for the judges themselves: I will miss them hugely. Their acute attentiveness to the books submitted, their kindness towards each other, their articulacy and their energy have made this past year a pleasure.’
This year’s Booker Prize campaign, ‘Fiction worth talking about’, is a celebration of the act of reading and discussing great books together. The campaign is designed to encourage readers to explore the nominated books, share their thoughts, and connect with others from around the world over their love of great fiction. Videos featuring the judges and readers from around the world can be viewed on the Booker Prize Instagram channel.
Find out more about the winning book.
Explore more:
Shortlist reading guides
Watch the 2025 shortlist films
Everything you need to know about the shortlist
Get to know the shortlisted authors
What our judges said about the shortlist
Get to know the Booker Prize 2025 judges
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