Booker Prize 2025: Who is David Szalay? All you need to know about the author of the winning novel 'Flesh'

Davi Szalay won the Booker Prize 2025 for his novel flesh. Photo Courtesy: AFP

David Szalay took home this year's Booker Prize for fiction for his novel 'Flesh,' is the first Hungarian-British author to win the Booker Prize.

Upbringing and literary journey
David Szalay was born in Canada in 1974, and has lived in in Lebanon, the UK, Hungary, and now lives in Vienna.

Szalay is the author of six fictional works that have been translated in over twenty languages. 'Flesh' is his sixth work of fiction exploring central themes including class, power, intimacy, migration and masculinity. Szalay's book recounts the life of István, from a teenage relationship with an older woman through time as a struggling immigrant in Britain to denizen of London high society. The novel's central character was written from the perspective of an outsider.

Szalay had previously been shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2016 for his work 'All That Man Is,' a series of stories about nine wildly different men.

Prize and recognition
The fifty-one-year old received 50,000-pound (approximately 58,22,800 Indian rupees) and a trophy which was presented to him by last year's winner Samantha Harvey.

The Booker Prize panel considered 153 books and was looking for the best work of long-form fiction by writers of any nationality, written in English and published in Britain and/or Ireland between October 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025.

Other Shortlists
According to the chair of the judges, Roddy Doyle among the six shortlisted works, one kept dominating the conversation. The front-runners were British writer Andrew Miller's domestic drama 'The Land in Winter' and Indian author Kiran Desai's 'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.' Other finalists were Susan Choi's 'Flashlight,' Katie Kitamura's 'Audition,' and 'The Rest of Our Lives.' by Ben Markovits.

The Booker Prize was founded in 1969, past winners include Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Arundhati Roy, and Margaret Atwood. (With inputs from AP and ANI)