Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Special offer: Receive 12 issues for just £12!
Subscribe today
Books

Flesh by David Szalay review – life comes at you fast

The Booker-nominated David Szalay’s fifth novel, Flesh, asks big questions in a straightforward way

Things tend to happen to István. The 15-year-old protagonist of Booker-nominated David Szalay’s fifth novel, Flesh, has a habit of becoming embroiled in dramatic events well beyond his control or understanding. Within a few pages of this sure-footed, fast-moving novel, Hungarian schoolboy István is enticed into a sparky sexual relationship with a saucy older neighbour.

He surrenders – initially reluctantly – to the 42-year-old’s appeals, imagines he’s in love, then gets caught up in a violent struggle with the neighbour’s husband which leads to a murder charge. He neither initiated the affair nor deliberately killed the victim but he doesn’t have much to say in his own defence, so it’s a confused shrug and off to a young offenders’ institution for three years. Fifty pages in, he’s out of the institution, and ready to have life happen to him again. 

Get the latest news and insight into how the Big Issue magazine is made by signing up for the Inside Big Issue newsletter

And so it goes. The young István doesn’t have many ambitions for himself and rarely makes plans. When he’s spurned by the object of his erotic fascination he falls into a funk, takes a look around and decides, off the cuff, to join the army. He’s heard talk of free food and board. He’s stationed in Kuwait during the Iraq war and emerges from his five-year stint a reluctant war hero. He still doesn’t have a clue what he’ll do next. 

Though he lives a life of lazy passivity, punctuated with endless cigarette breaks – smoking is one of the few things he does with enthusiasm – István does decide on one change: a move to London. After an act of kindness towards a well-heeled local, István begins to make connections and is offered opportunities to rise up the social ladder until he’s mixing with London’s rich and powerful.

It’s when his place among the upper societal echelons is threatened that the novel’s big questions really raise their head. Can aspiration outrun fate? How do we choose the people in our lives? What makes life worth living? 

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

Szalay has a very singular style, lean and unshowy. This is the second novel he’s written since the Booker-nominated All That Man Is in 2016, and his prose throughout has been markedly disciplined and averse to whimsy. Details of István’s comings and goings, as well as his generally simple thought processes, are presented without authorial comment or qualification.

Mundane conversations are transcribed at length, with István often on the back foot, trying to interpret hinted undertones. Even the settings are described using István’s limited vocabulary and casual tone: “In the evenings there’s the sound of the mosques or whatever.” However, despite the lack of lyricism and psychological investigation common to most modern novels, the reading experience is touching and surprisingly immersive. An impressive feat.

Flesh by David Szalay is out now (Vintage, £18.99). You can buy it from the Big Issue shop on bookshop.org, which helps to support Big Issue and independent bookshops.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us moreBig Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy of the magazine or get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

READER-SUPPORTED SINCE 1991

Reader-supported journalism that doesn’t just report problems, it helps solve them.

Recommended for you

View all
The Man on the Endless Stair by Chris Barkley review – mind-bending revelations
Books

The Man on the Endless Stair by Chris Barkley review – mind-bending revelations

Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler review – speculative fiction with an emotional core
Books

Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler review – speculative fiction with an emotional core

The extraordinary story of Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman to hold a pilot's licence
History

The extraordinary story of Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman to hold a pilot's licence

Top 5 Scottish books for bairns, chosen by author and translator Ashley Douglas 
Books

Top 5 Scottish books for bairns, chosen by author and translator Ashley Douglas 

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payments: Where to get help in 2025 now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payments: Where to get help in 2025 now the scheme is over

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know