David Szalay’s Booker Prize novel is a depiction of an Hungarian immigrant named Istvan. His journey takes him from a lonely childhood in Hungary to London where he first gets a job as a bouncer at a strip joint, and eventually he marries a wealthy English widow. Istvan is an enigmatic character who floats through life letting others, for the most part, make choices for him. Flesh describes much of what he is doing and saying, but little of what he is thinking.

While I found Flesh interesting, I did not feel it was the best book of the year. Flesh is full of dialogue but lacks much description. For example, I have no idea what any of the characters, including Istvan, looked like.