The Hungarian-British author took the coveted literary award and £50,000 (NZD$116,677 / AUD$100,755) prize for his sixth novel, that has been lauded for its spare prose and lack of ‘unnecessary’ detail.
Szalay, 51, beat five other finalists to take the Booker Prize, which regularly brings acclaim and a significant boost in book sales. His book ‘All That Man Is’ was previously shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2016.
‘Flesh’ follows an emotionally detached man over decades who is unraveled by a series of events beyond his grasp. The award notes explain the novel asks profound questions about ‘what drives a life, what makes it worth living, and what breaks it’.
Chair judge Roddy Doyle said the judging panel agreed they had ‘never read anything quite like it.’
“The judges discussed the six books on the shortlist for more than five hours,” explained Doyle in the judging notes. “The book we kept coming back to, the one that stood out from the other great novels, was Flesh – because of its singularity. It is, in many ways, a dark book but it is a joy to read.”
Doyle points out by the end of the novel, readers don’t know what the protagonist, István, looks like but this doesn’t lessen the impact, in fact it is a striking feature of the book.
“Somehow, it’s the absence of words – or the absence of István’s words – that allow us to know István,” he notes.
“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.’
Actress Sarah Jessica Parker was among the judging panel this year, alongside Doyle, Chris Power, Kiley Reid, and Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀.
