WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025, David Szalay’s captivating and astonishingly moving novel about the forces that make and break our lives

Through chance, luck and choice, one man’s life takes him from a modest apartment in Hungary to the elite society of London…

Fifteen-year-old Istvan lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he becomes isolated, with his neighbour – a married woman – as his only companion. When a clandestine relationship begins between them, his life spirals out of control.

As the years pass, Istvan moves from the army to the circles of London’s elite. His competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth win him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely.