Flesh by David Szalay is one of the most talked-about recent releases readers keep adding to their lists and it is easy to see why: one man's life told in spare, unsettling fragments across decades.
What it's about
David Szalay traces a man's passage from a Hungarian adolescence through wealth, violence and drift, in the spare, affectless prose that makes his fiction so quietly devastating. It is a study of a life lived largely at a remove and of how much can happen to a person who feels so little.
Why everyone's talking about it
Szalay is one of the most respected literary novelists working, previously Booker-shortlisted and Flesh was among the most acclaimed literary releases of its year, widely reviewed and debated. It is prestige fiction of a high order.
The verdict, for now
If you love cool, controlled, morally complex literary fiction, this is a standout. Come for the fragmentary structure, stay for the chill it leaves behind.
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