A modern novel tracing the life and loves of Istavan a Hungarian man living at first with his mother.The story follows his life from time in a young offenders institute following an affair with an older married woman.through army service and marriage to a wealthy woman in London and finally back to where it all began in Hungary. The book contains many instances of sex and some of violence as his life in England begins to fall apart.
the writing style is straightforward and at times lacks detail but this did not detract from the storytelling.
A book I found interesting without it being exceptional

Thank you for introducing me to this author. I found the writing style very dry, and Istavan very elusive, both in the story, and in his conversations. It felt as if it was building up to something exciting, but the tone continued through the book.
I did enjoy reading it. It makes a change to read about someone to whom life happens, and I liked the reflections at the end of the book, when Istavan was looking back at his life and the people who had been in it.
Recommended.

David Szalay's latest novel, Flesh, tells the story of a lonely Hungarian boy to whom things happen, from the sexual to the physical. There is a detached quality to the writing, which keeps István at a distance from the reader. However, as the novel progresses, something of the quality of Szalay's prose draws you in, and Flesh becomes something more engrossing than it first leads you to believe it will be, and by the end there is sparing, sensitive tone, bordering on the elegaic, which makes Flesh ultimately very moving.

There is a curious lack of passion for a book entitled ‘flesh’. The central character is introduced as an innocent young boy, who proceeds through life accepting what is dealt to him. His sexual encounters leave him unmoved in a curious, distant way. Has he made himself immune from feeling? His progress through life is peopled by those he has touched, but they don’t seem to touch him. Perhaps he has been hardened to expect little. The only constant seems to be his mother, she seems very strong and non judgmental. Has the lack of a father made him so cold? I found the style of writing very difficult to engage with, but maybe that’s the point, he is a difficult character to understand, however I really did invest in the outcome.

Szalay is an award winning and clearly talented writer and I have enjoyed most of his previous work. I am not sure this one really worked for me as I felt quite detached from the main character however the writing was excellent

I found this a strange and rather difficult book. Very well written, but try as I might, I just couldn’t buy into Istavan, the central character. He’s groomed and abused as a teenager and we follow his story into adulthood where things don’t turn out well. But why? I never felt I got to know enough about the character to either like or dislike him and understand his motivations. It feels like clever writing but not much content. Maybe I’m missing something but it’s fallen rather flat .

I wanted to love this book and in places I really enjoyed the writing. The detached style though, as the novel progressed, I just felt less and less engaged with what happened to Istvan... everything very much happened to him. He was sexually assaulted by an older woman and manages to kill her husband, by accident and while his emotions about thinking he is in love with this woman are touched upon, any feelings he had after the death are not explored at all.
The writer is talented though and I'm sure there are some who will love the book, just not me, I'm afraid!

Istvan is a fifteen-year-old Hungarian, lonely and slightly isolated, living in an apartment block with his mother.

Flesh, in the bodily sense, gets involved from the start as he is first groomed and then seduced by a female neighbour. From then on, as his life and the book develop, he seems to be led by his body and by passing desires (his own and those of others) without much higher-level thinking.

A lot happens. He joins the army, murders someone, goes to prison, becomes a security guard for a rich family, gets rich and then gets poor again. By and large, he just seems to accept it.

That makes it a strange book. There’s very little sense of motive or internal dialogue about what is happening. Also, many years pass. He lives in London, moves back to Hungary but there is little sense of why. It seems to be an odd life lived largely without emotion or justification so, for a reader, it is sometimes hard to empathise – or even to sympathise.

Maybe he was traumatised, maybe there are people like this but the weakness of the book is a lack of insight into the choices he makes or submits to at the whim of others. Having said that, it’s not an uninteresting read and perhaps the point is that life is a bit like this for many people whose lives are pulled in different directions – by chance, by what other people want and by the world around them.

15 year old István, a shy introvert, lives with his mother in a small apartment in Hungary. An illicit relationship develops between him & and a married woman neighbour which ends disastrously. Later, after leaving the army, he ends up in England rubbing shoulders with the rich and powerful, eventually experiencing their lifestyle himself before circumstances threaten to sweep it all away.
So many of the events in his life are decided by the actions and decisions of others. I didn’t feel I got to know István, as he comes across as someone who things happen to, rather than someone who makes things happen & he doesn’t seem to be that surprised when things go wrong, a bystander quietly observing his own life.
But maybe that’s the point of the book.
The narrative is sparing & sensitive and I found myself caring about what happened to him. Definitely worth a read!

Many thanks to NetGalley & Vintage for an ARC

I became deeply engrossed in this. For the first few chapters the writing is sparse. and factual as it records the adolescent István, his affair with a woman his mother's age, and a dead end job followed by the arrmy. István's communication is largely restricted to saying everything being ok, the classic teenage response to dissuade further engagement.

Szalay uses a highly effective device to occasionally not covering major milestones, but placing us in a narrative which makes us realise things have moved on.

Becoming a driver for a wealthy couple in England, István has an affair with the wife and becomes a wealthy property developer. He has moved on from saying OK but rarely gives any emotional response. I was surprised that he seemed to be doing well as there had not been much sign of potential in his younger years. Unfortunately it all goes wrong and becomes bleak.

Something happens near the end of the book that triggers an emotional breakdown. I realised Istvan has been repressing his emotions, perhaps as a safety mechanism, perhaps as a result of abuse when he was a teenager. Szalay doesn't moralise or question why István is the way he is. He presents the man and his life, with its ups and downs, and we make up our own mind.

I found the first part engaging if a bit ‘icky’. Too much sex detail or me. The writing is blunt with brief conversations which I think are more like how people really talk to each other.

However, I found the narrative to continue at a pace which did not engage me as we trawl through the main protagonist's life. I could not sustain interest.

So two stars only. I read an ARC supplied by NetGalley and the publisher.

Flesh by David Szalay begins with 14 year-old Hungarian boy, loner Istvan ,getting himself into all kinds of trouble and growing up very quickly when he becomes involved with a neighbouring married couple.. After a very promising start the narrative jumps ahead a couple of years into another promising storyline,then the same again throughout the book making it more a series of linked anecdotes than a flowing narrative. Istvan is a morose and almost monosyllabic character with very little depth and even less charm. While I appreciated author Szalay's skills at bringing a character like Istvan to life,I've been unfortunate enough to come across several people like him , the book is a struggle as such people tend to be one dimensional and shallow rather than interesting . The episodic nature of the book was very frustrating, sometimes just feeling as if every second chapter was missing,a real shame as it made for a choppy narrative and the feeling of an opportunity missed ,a more conventional writing style would have made this so much better. I finished the book wondering quite what the point of it was.

Istvan goes from being a soldier then a security guard to being the husband of a millionaire in this story which is set in Hungary and England. Along the way he has several sexual relationships and women fall in love with him but he remains oddly disconnected from them.
The style in which the book is written echoes this, being very spare though there are some effective descriptions of nature and the seasons. Mostly it’s written in a matter of fact way. One character tells him he’s nonjudgmental which seems accurate.
I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy it at the start as I didn’t really take to the main character but the story did hook me and made me want to read on to find out what happens to him.
Thanks to Vintage and Netgalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

This is a book I tolerated rather than enjoyed. The main character, Istvan, takes opportunities and falls into situations rather than makes choices in his life. There is too much sex and drug taking for my liking and the whole atmosphere of the book is sleazy and depressing. Istvan 's life is a bit of a roller coaster but his emotions do not show. - the story is told without passion or comment.