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Oct 14

2025 Booker Shortlist: Flesh

Now that the shortlist has been announced, our panel will be providing some additional thoughts on each of the shortlist nominees. First up is Flesh by David Szalay. You can read our short reviews here: Flesh. The novel made it onto 4 of our predictions lists with everyone except Anita predicting it would make the shortlist. The Booker judges had this to say about the book…

David Szalay’s fifth novel follows István from his teenage years on a Hungarian housing estate to borstal, and from soldiering in Iraq to his career as personal security for London’s super-rich. In many ways István is stereotypically masculine – physical, impulsive, barely on speaking terms with his own feelings (and for much of the novel barely speaking: he must rank among the more reticent characters in literature). But somehow, using only the sparest of prose, this hypnotically tense and compelling book becomes an astonishingly moving portrait of a man’s life”

What does our panel think of the odds of this book being this year’s winner? Keep reading to find out

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