**WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025**Brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money David NichollsI was tearing through [Flesh], I never once slowed down Jennette McCurdyBrilliance on every page Samantha HarveySo much searing insight into the way we live now ObserverThrough chance, luck and choice, one mans life takes him from a modest apartment in Hungary to the elite society of London in this captivating new novel about the forces that make and break our livesFifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he becomes isolated, with his neighbour a married woman as his only companion. When a clandestine relationship begins between them, his life spirals out of control.
As the years pass, István moves from the army to the circles of Londons elite. His competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth win him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely. An astonishingly moving portrait of a mans life Booker Prize Judges, 2025A revelatory novel Sunday TimesPure brilliance from the first to the (devastating) last sentence India KnightRefreshing, illuminating and true Financial TimesOne of the most astonishing books Ive ever read Dua LipaHugely entertaining, gripping like a thriller The TimesVisceral and compelling Gary StevensonExciting, propulsive, emotional Sarah Jessica Parker*A BOOK OF THE YEAR for the Guardian, Observer, Financial Times, Sunday Times, Independent, GQ and Daily Telegraph*
