Flesh: David Szalay’s Spare and Unvarnished Portrait of a Man Adrift

This month’s Service95 Book Club episode comes to you live from the New York Public Library, in partnership with Spotify, recorded in September in front of an audience. Dua is joined by Booker-shortlisted writer David Szalay to discuss his astonishing new novel Flesh - a brilliantly spare and unsettling portrait of a man caught between desire, social classes, and fate. 

The story follows István from a bleak Hungarian housing estate to the upper echelons of London society. But David resists the hero’s arc: István is passive, pliable, often silent – a man seemingly buffeted by events rather than steering them. His life unfolds through abrupt leaps in time, leaving the reader to piece together the shadows between. 

In their conversation, Dua and David explore why he chose such pared-back prose, to what extent István exemplifies ‘a primative form of masculinity’, and how money, class, and power warp even our most intimate relationships. They touch on the book’s unresolved tensions, from István’s relationships with women and his stepson, to the existential loneliness that haunts every page. 

Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble  

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