Cover Booker Prize 2025 winner David Szalay, author of ‘Flesh’ at the London ceremony (Photo: Getty Images)
Booker Prize 2025 winner David Szalay, author of ‘Flesh’ at the London ceremony (Photo: Getty Images)
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David Szalay has become the first Hungarian-British author to win the Booker Prize for fiction for his novel ‘Flesh’, as Asian writers dominate this year’s shortlist.
This year’s Booker Prize ceremony fuelled global speculation over whether it might be India’s year to triumph. Had Kiran Desai prevailed, it would have marked an unprecedented clean sweep for India, following author Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi’s win of the International Booker Prize earlier this year for their short-story collection Heart Lamp.
Instead, Szalay took home the prize, receiving £50,000 (HK$510,000) in prize money. Announced on November 10 in London, the award recognised his propulsive, hypnotic work Flesh—his sixth work of fiction—which charts the relationship between a teenage boy named István and an older woman across time, from life as a struggling immigrant in Britain to a member of London’s high society. The novel investigates themes of class, power, intimacy, migration and masculinity.
Panel chair Roddy Doyle, who won the Booker Prize in 1993, remarked that the judges “had never read anything quite like it”, highlighting its originality and emotional reach.
The other shortlisted authors include Kiran Desai, Susan Choi, Katie Kitamura, Ben Markovits and Andrew Miller.
Desai, a strong contender, previously won the Booker Prize in 2006 with The Inheritance of Loss. She hails from a renowned literary family—her mother, Anita Desai, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times.
American writer Susan Choi, of Korean and Jewish heritage, made the shortlist for the first time with her sixth novel Flashlight. Another first-time nominee, Katie Kitamura—a Japanese American novelist, journalist and art critic who once trained in ballet and now teaches creative writing at New York University—was recognised for her fifth novel Audition.
Above Booker Prize 2025 winner David Szalay, author of ‘Flesh’ at the London ceremony (Photo: Getty Images)
Booker Prize 2025 winner David Szalay, author of ‘Flesh’ at the London ceremony (Photo: Getty Images)
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This year’s judging panel comprised Doyle, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Kiley Reid, Chris Power and Sarah Jessica Parker, who collectively steered one of literature’s most prestigious prizes toward an eclectic and internationally diverse lineup.
Founded in 1969, the Booker Prize honours the year’s best English-language novel published in the UK. More than half a century later, its legacy continues to shape literary excellence across continents.
Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
