June 2026

2025 Booker Prize winner There’s no denying the audacity of Flesh, last year’s Booker Prize winner. It begins with a genuinely shocking set of events, which promises psychological depth and long-reaching consequences for the life of István, a working class teenage boy in Hungary. In the early pages, I found myself utterly compelled by how such a bombshell of events might echo throughout István’s life, shaping his decisions, relationships, and sense of self. Yet as the novel unfolds, to me that promise feels only partially realised.  This is a minimalist novel, with grief often depicted by white space. István is not a…