October is often associated with scary stories and tales of terror, as its big holiday is Halloween. Whether you’re into watching chilling documentaries or classic horror movies, reading the latest murder mystery, or telling ghost stories around a campfire, it all comes to the forefront in October. It can be a bit of a spooky overload, especially for those who are not into big thrills. So, if you fit into this group—or if you just want to read something that strays from the expected this October—you can check out Service95 Book Club’s monthly pick, Flesh by David Szalay.
Released earlier this year, Flesh takes a look at exploration, fate, masculinity, and the roles we all play in our lifetimes. It was shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize and was a 2025 Kirkus Prize Finalist. Its author, David Szalay, is known for his prize-winning novels, having won the Betty Trask Award and Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for his first novel, London and the South-East. In 2016, Szalay’s fourth novel, All That Man Is, was longlisted for the Booker Prize. All the while, he has been praised as one of the top British writers and authors by publications like The Telegraph and Granta.
About Flesh, Dua Lipa shares,
“Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother on a drab housing estate in Hungary. Shy and awkward, he’s having trouble fitting in. A spark of excitement comes in the form of his clandestine relationship with a married neighbor—until it ends with a catastrophic incident that changes István’s fate forever.
“True to the episodic form of this book, we pick up several years later as István, lost and directionless, joins the army. We follow him to London and the shady world of Soho strip clubs, before a chance encounter once again pushes him in a very different direction. Suddenly, he has wealth, power, and status, but one constant remains… István’s apparent passivity and emotional detachment from the events swirling around him.
“This is a book that constantly keeps you guessing. Even down to the dialogue, which is like nothing I’ve ever read before. In ‘Flesh,’ David pares speech back to the bone, and there are almost no physical descriptions of any of the characters—you’re left to picture them for yourself. Instead, key moments such as István’s changing fortunes are reflected through small observations, like his habit for cigarettes, then cigars, and then vapes. Yet, despite these spare details, I found ‘Flesh’ a tense and gripping read—and by the end, I cared deeply about István.
“David Szalay’s discipline as a writer to give us just enough is unmatched. In István, he has created a character who will be analyzed and puzzled over by every reader that encounters him. I can’t wait to see what David does next.”
A few weeks ago, Service95 hosted a conversation between Dua Lipa and David Szalay, where they discussed Flesh’s disjointed structure, emotional realism, masculinity, and the way that various global events shaped István’s transformation throughout the book. The discussion took place at the New York Public Library, in partnership with Spotify. It featured opening statements from the President of the NYPL, Tony Marx, and an audience Q&A moderated by Spotify’s Chief Public Affairs Officer, Dustee Jenkins. You can check out the discussion here.
In addition to the discussion, Service95 also has Szalay’s playlist and reading list for Flesh and a rundown of Szalay’s past novels.
All of this and more can be found in the ‘Book Club’ section of the Service95 website.
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