The latest champion of the Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious milestones in the literary world, has arrived in Turkish fresh off its victory. İthaki Publishing has introduced readers to David Szalay’s Body—the most talked-about, debated, and ultimately triumphant work of 2025.
Furthermore, this dark yet fascinating text was brought into our language through the masterful translation of Elif Ersavcı, winner of the 2025 Talât Sait Halman Translation Award. If you are ready for an honest journey into the strangeness of living that will echo in your mind for a long time, it is time to meet István.
From the Silence of Hungary to the Glitter of London
The novel opens with fifteen-year-old István’s melancholic and isolated life in Hungary. His uncanny and secret relationship with his mother’s married neighbor—while he is lost in the social labyrinths of school—is not just a story of first love; it becomes the cornerstone of István’s future emotional ruin.
Szalay takes his protagonist from the quiet apartment flats of Hungary to the harsh discipline of the military, and from there, flings him into London’s most elite and glamorous, yet equally corrupt, circles.
-
Money and Power: The relentless “ambition to win” of the 21st century.
-
Modern Masculinity: The sense of intimacy lost while chasing status and wealth.
-
Existential Confinement: Can fortune buy everything, or is it a monster that completely destroys its owner?
Why “Body”?
The 2025 Booker Prize Jury summarized the book with these words: “A dark novel, but a great pleasure to read.” Szalay, who previously demonstrated his sharp observational skills with All That Man Is (2016 Booker Finalist), focuses this time on the lifelong physical and spiritual transformation of a single character—on his “body.”
Body is an agonizingly honest portrait of a modern man who, while caught between love, intimacy, status, and wealth, prepares his own end through the fortune he attains.
Body is a work that offers perfect craftsmanship on every page, dissecting the lost male figure of modern times with the precision of a surgeon. If you are curious about this unforgettable portrait praised by names like Rachel Kushner and Samantha Harvey, this book should sit at the very top of your 2026 reading list.
