LONDON, U.K.: David Szalay has won the 2025 Booker Prize for his novel Flesh, becoming the first Hungarian-British author to receive one of the most prestigious literary awards in the English-speaking world.

Written in spare, precise prose, the novel follows a man swept up in events beyond his control over several decades, tracing his journey from a housing estate in Hungary to the luxurious homes of London's super-rich.

Describing the book as "a meditation on class, power, intimacy, migration and masculinity," the Booker organisers called Flesh "a compelling portrait of one man and the formative experiences that can reverberate across a lifetime."

Along with the £50,000 (US$67,000) prize for the winner, each shortlisted author and translator received £2,500. The award also brings global recognition and a surge in book sales.

"Even though my father is Hungarian, I never felt entirely at home in Hungary," Szalay said in an interview. "And after living away from the UK and London for so many years, I had a similar feeling about London. I wanted to write a book that stretched between Hungary and London — about someone who isn't fully at home in either place."

Flesh is the Canadian-born author's sixth novel. Szalay was previously shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2016 for All That Man Is, a collection of stories about nine men at different stages of life.

"We had never read anything quite like it," said Roddy Doyle, chair of this year's judging panel. "It is, in many ways, a dark book, but it is a joy to read. I don't think I've read a novel that uses the white space on the page so effectively — as if the author is inviting the reader to help create the character with him."