Overview
- Szalay received the £50,000 award and the Iris trophy from 2024 winner Samantha Harvey at Old Billingsgate in London.
- The panel, chaired by Roddy Doyle with Sarah Jessica Parker, Chris Power, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ and Kiley Reid, deliberated for more than five hours.
- Flesh follows the taciturn Hungarian István from a housing estate and military service to work among London’s ultra-wealthy, exploring masculinity, class, migration, trauma and power.
- The winner was selected from about 153 submissions and a shortlist that included Kiran Desai, Andrew Miller, Susan Choi, Katie Kitamura and Ben Markovits.
- A filmed reading by Stormzy was screened at the ceremony, Dua Lipa publicly backed the novel, and Szalay described writing it as “risky,” becoming the first Hungarian-British author to win.