Hungarian-British author David Szalay has claimed the 2025 Booker Prize for Fiction, taking home the coveted £50,000 award for his sixth novel, Flesh. In a year marked by a bold expansion of the Booker brand, Szalay’s unflinching, sparely-written novel about a working-class Hungarian man’s life, which one judge called a “dark joy to read,” stands as a powerful testament to the prize’s enduring commitment to literary excellence.
The win, announced Monday evening in a ceremony at London’s Old Billingsgate, was a major upset for the bookmakers’ favourite, Andrew Miller, and former winner Kiran Desai, whose long-awaited return to fiction was also shortlisted.
Chair of Judges, former Booker winner Roddy Doyle, praised Szalay’s novel for its “utter singularity,” noting the panel was continuously drawn back to its exploration of masculinity, class, and the sheer strangeness of being a “living body in the world”. The book follows István from his traumatic adolescence in a Hungarian housing estate to his entanglement with the world of London’s ultra-rich, driven by propulsive, almost cinematic energy.
While the literary world digests Szalay’s victory, the Booker Prize Foundation is simultaneously making headlines for a significant move to cultivate the next generation of readers. The organisation has announced the creation of the Children’s Booker Prize, a major new award with a £50,000 purse set to launch its first winner in early 2027. This new prize, aimed at the best contemporary fiction for 8- to 12-year-olds, is the Foundation’s first major new award since the launch of the International Booker Prize in 2005.
The most exciting, and arguably radical, element of the Children’s Booker Prize is its judging panel. It will be co-judged by adults and a dedicated group of three young readers, chaired by the UK’s Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce. The Foundation hopes this will not only elevate children’s literature but also inspire a lifelong love of reading, planning to gift at least 30,000 copies of the shortlisted titles to children who might not otherwise have access to them.
From the stark narrative of Flesh to the lively new world of the Children’s Booker Prize, the UK’s most famous literary award is clearly not content to rest on its laurels—it is actively shaping both the canon and the future of reading.
Words by C. Sharmishtha
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