Call me perverse if you like but I’m sometimes reluctant to read Booker Prize Winners. I do but, I’m not inclined to rush to do so. This is no reflection on the qualities of the writers. 

David Szalay’s Flesh was a welcome exception. Yes - another Christmas gift. Started to read it at 11pm one night and was still going at 4am. Certainly a read I couldn’t put down.

Szalay’s voice is matter of fact, measured, honest and there’s no judgemental commentary just the direct telling of Istvan’s existence. Istvan is a haptic drifter his life shaped by chance and other people’s initiative and need of him. The narrative is predominantly dialogue and yet an atmospheric and a vivid sense of space is created.