Flesh by David Szalay

Introducing the official winner of the Booker Prize. From a quiet apartment in Hungary to the elite circles of London, one man’s life is shaped by chance, luck, and choice. Beginning with a secretive and illicit relationship in his teenage years, he rises through the army and into the super-rich, navigating love, intimacy, status, and wealth. With searing insight and merciless elegance, this captivating novel explores the forces that make and break our lives.

Over the past year, the Booker Prize 2025 judges have worked their way through 153 novels - and now, they’ve narrowed it down to a shortlist of just six!

Chair of judges Roddy Doyle says, ‘The six have, I think, two big things in common. Their authors are in total command of their own store of English, their own rhythm, their own expertise; they have each crafted a novel that no one else could have written. And all of the books, in six different and very fresh ways, find their stories in the examination of the individual trying to live with – to love, to seek attention from, to cope with, to understand, to keep at bay, to tolerate, to escape from – other people. In other words, they are all brilliantly written and they are all brilliantly human.’

Shop the full shortlist below!