David Szalay – Hungarian-British novelist and short-story writer whose spare, incisive prose explores identity, money, masculinity and the everyday under-belly of Europe. Notable works include London and the South-East, All That Man Is and Flesh (Booker Prize 2025).
📚 Born in 1974 in Montreal to a Hungarian father and Canadian mother; raised in London, now based in Vienna. 🎓 Studied at Oxford and worked in advertising before turning to fiction. 🏆 Debut novel London and the South-East won the Betty Trask and Geoffrey Faber Memorial prizes. 📘 All That Man Is (2016) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Gordon Burn Prize. ✈️ Turbulence (2018) unfolds through twelve interlinked stories named after airport codes. 🎙️ His minimalist style focuses on what’s left unsaid – tension, silence, small gestures. 💶 Themes include social mobility, masculinity, commerce, and alienation in contemporary Europe. 🧳 His characters often drift and wait rather than act, revealing the texture of modern restlessness. 🌍 Flesh (2025) follows a Hungarian man through decades of migration, wealth, and moral unease. 🤣 Fun fact: he was listed among the “Top 20 British Writers under 40.”