Flesh
By David Szalay
Review by Marija
A fascinating and heart-breaking work, longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize.
The writing is spare, and utterly compelling in its unyielding forward movement. The main protagonist Istvan, is neither a hero nor an anti-hero as he passively moves through his life as a piece of driftwood gliding through the shallows of the ocean. Yet the daily banal trivialities slowly, inexorably gather into a life that is eventually revealed as part of the greater social landscape of modern-day Europe.
Though I found Istvan at times remote, and often frustrating, the ending left me quite bereft, and with questions of what is a life after all – do we live it, does it live through us? Personally, I love authors who write in this way of a slow burn, a collection of small moments that lead to an ending that leaves you off-kilter and slightly dazed.
