From Quiet Contender to Prize Favorite: David Szalay's Late Surge in the 2025 Booker Race
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For much of the 2025 Booker season, David Szalay lingered in the background—a respected veteran with a 2016 shortlisting under his belt, but rarely topping the prediction lists. His novel Flesh, a taut exploration of one man's detached journey through life's physical and social upheavals, drew steady praise for its unflinching minimalism. Yet it was Andrew Miller's atmospheric historical sweep and Kiran Desai's long-awaited diaspora epic that dominated early betting odds and insider chatter after the September 23 shortlist reveal. That changed in late October, as celebrity endorsements, critical reappraisals, and word-of-mouth momentum quietly propelled Szalay into serious contention, culminating in his November 10 victory.
The turning point came mid-autumn. Dua Lipa selected Flesh for her influential book club, calling it a "tense and gripping read" in an October interview with Szalay at the New York Public Library. Around the same time, Stormzy recorded a dramatic excerpt for the Booker's promotional short films, lending the novel a cultural crossover appeal that amplified its reach. These high-profile boosts coincided with deepening critical appreciation: reviewers highlighted how Szalay's spare prose—relying on silence, repetition, and unspoken tension—created a hypnotic pull, distinguishing it from more expansive rivals. As readers delved deeper, discussions on masculinity's quiet crises and accidental class mobility gained traction, resonating in a year marked by economic unease and identity shifts.
Post-shortlist reactions had been mixed at first. Some found the protagonist István's emotional flatness challenging, with his frequent "okay" responses evoking detachment bordering on numbness. But by late October, this very restraint was reframed as masterful innovation. Judges, in previews of their deliberations, hinted at valuing singularity; chair Roddy Doyle later revealed the panel spent over five hours debating before uniting behind Flesh for its unprecedented use of page space and reader invitation. Szalay himself described the writing as "risky," a sentiment echoed in his acceptance speech emphasizing the need for publishing to embrace bold experimentation over safe bets.
This late buzz mattered profoundly. In a prize often accused of favoring crowd-pleasers or topical grandeur, Szalay's win validates mid-career persistence and stylistic daring. As the first Hungarian-British author to claim the Booker—born in Canada, raised in London, now Vienna-based—he embodies the transnational perspectives increasingly central to contemporary fiction. His triumph over bookies' favorites underscores how prizes can pivot on subtle strengths: not volume or sentiment, but precision that lingers.
Moving forward, expect Flesh to influence a wave of introspective, character-focused works, perhaps encouraging adaptations that capture its understated intensity. For Szalay, long hailed as a "writers' writer," this recognition could broaden his audience without diluting his voice. In an era of fleeting attention, his rise reminds us that true impact often builds slowly, rewarding those willing to inhabit the uncomfortable silences.
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