Flesh
A life recorded as things that happen to a body, with the interior deliberately withheld.
David Szalay follows István from a Hungarian housing estate through the army, London wealth and back again, in short flat scenes that withhold almost all interior explanation. The restraint is the method: a life recorded as a series of things that happen to a body, with the reader left to supply what the man will not.
Recommended by 2 People
Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
We see him conscripted into the army, later serving in Iraq, and eventually making his way to the glittering universe of London’s wealthy elite. Each phase of his life exposes him to new hierarchies and moral ambiguities. Through it all a hunger for connection, for recognition, for something resembling meaning, continues to pulse beneath the surface of István’s life.
Interview · November 2025
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