Flesh – David Szalay

Flesh by David Szalay is a sharp, unsettling, and deeply observant novel that explores masculinity, power, and vulnerability in the modern world. Told through a series of interconnected episodes, the book follows a young man from Eastern Europe as he moves through different stages of life, shaped by chance encounters, economic forces, and the quiet pressures of survival.

Szalay writes with restraint and precision, focusing on the physical and emotional realities of his characters rather than dramatic excess. Flesh examines how bodies—working bodies, aging bodies, and desiring bodies—become sites of control, exploitation, and meaning in a globalized world. From manual labor to intimate relationships, the novel exposes how social class, wealth, and circumstance influence human dignity and personal agency.

Both intimate and political, Flesh reflects on what it means to grow up and grow older in a world defined by inequality and quiet violence. David Szalay’s spare, unsentimental prose gives the novel its power, making it a haunting meditation on identity, endurance, and the cost of existing within modern systems of power.

Pages: 368
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Language: English