2025 Booker Prize winner on the complexity of identity.
In a novel, the words on the page are our entrance into another’s mind. But sometimes it’s the space between the lines that define a character.
In David Szalay’s 2025 Booker Prize–winning Flesh, István is caught between the boundaries of Hungary and England, his teenage years and adulthood, his body and sense of self and desire and indifference. With spare, propulsive prose, David paints an intimate portrait of a man slowly unravelling as he asks profound questions about the strangeness of being.
Hear David trace the evolution of his singular novel and its protagonist, in conversation with Michelle de Kretser.
Photo credit: Jonas Matyassy
David Szalay
Winner of 2025 Booker Prize with Flesh, David Szalay is the author of six works of fiction, including London and the South-East, for which he was awarded the Betty Trask and Geoffrey Faber Memorial prizes, All That Man Is, for which he was awarded the Gordon Burn Prize and Plimpton Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Turbulence, which won the Edge Hill Prize. Born in Canada, he grew up in London and now lives in Vienna. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages.
Photo credit: Joy Lai
Michelle de Kretser
Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka. She lives in Warrane/Sydney on unceded Gadigal land. An honorary associate of the English Department at the University of Sydney, she has won several awards for her fiction. Theory & Practice is her seventh novel.
Event and Ticket Details
BMEC Members
Single session: $8
Day Pass: $50 (all events in the selected day)
Festival Pass: $130 (all events in the Festival programme)
Non-Members
Single session: $10
Day Pass: $60 (all events in the selected day)
Festival Pass: $160
*A $3 booking fee applies, BMEC Members do not pay this fee.
Please book ahead as spaces are limited.
Livestreamed event at Bathurst Library with bluetooth headphones provided.
