David Szalay says his Booker-winning novel ‘Flesh’ isn’t just about masculinity

David Szalay didn’t set out to write a novel about the so-called crisis in masculinity, but he doesn’t mind if you read “Flesh” that way.

“While I was writing the book, I tried not to think of it too much in terms of a broader sort of cultural discussion or a broader sort of landscape of representation,” he said in a recent video call from Vienna.

“To write a book as a deliberate attempt to participate on some level in a discussion like that might have taken the book away from a focus on … trying to write as honestly as I can about certain experiences and about experience.”

The Canadian-born author’s Booker Prize win last month prompted a slurry of think pieces about how “Flesh” fit into ongoing conversations about masculinity and male representation in a literary scene that has made a deliberate effort to include more women’s voices in recent years.

The novel centres on István, a quiet young man whose life is derailed in adolescence by a predatory relationship with an older neighbour. The book follows István’s life, with notable years-long gaps, as he joins the army and later gets a job in security that propels him into the world of England’s ultra-wealthy.

Commentators have pointed to István’s slowness in recognizing his emotions and propensity for occasional violence, as well as the simultaneous attraction and repulsion he feels towards his sexual partners, as evidence the book is a portrait of toxic masculinity.

For Szalay, “Flesh” is more universal than that.

“I wanted to write a book just about sort of being alive more generally — about what it means to be alive,” he said.

“But the aspect of masculinity is part of that because the protagonist is male, so inevitably it becomes part of what the book is about.”

In general, he said, he tries not to pay too much attention to the conversation around his books, but that’s a little more difficult given the onslaught of attention after winning the Booker.

It’s been a whirlwind two weeks for Szalay, who immediately caught a cold after the ceremony. Still, he dutifully showed up for interviews and attended an event in Newcastle before jetting off to the Charleston Literary Festival in South Carolina. From there, a few days in Austria, and then Germany and Italy.

It’s partially by virtue of that busyness that he hasn’t been pouring over the online commentary, he joked.

“It’s been one of the busiest periods of my professional life,” he said, before correcting himself: “the busiest, I guess.”

He doesn’t have any time off until Dec. 3.

“I’ve pencilled that in as: recovery from cold,” he quipped.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2025.