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Booker Prize 2025 | Winner Reaction · Bookies' Favourite

• 0:15
  Hi. Welcome to the Club Bookies
• 0:19
  favorite book club. We discuss literary shortlists
• 0:22
  and award-winning novels. This episode we're discussing
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  the Booker Prize winner announcement, with Flesh by
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  David Salloy having won the award.
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  We've already discussed this book in depth in an earlier
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  episode when we were reading the six shortlisted books.
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  That episode is linked below, or just scroll past through our
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  previous episodes to find it. Let's start by sharing our
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  initial reactions to the winner. I'm I'm Aaron and I am boarding
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  a flight to Hungary. I very nearly recorded this
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  episode from Hungary. I was looking at flights and I
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  found a very cheap 1 so I very nearly went to Hungary just to
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  record this episode and no. We didn't.
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  I don't believe this. I wanted to surprise all of you
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  guys by being like surprised. I'm in Hungary, I predicted
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  this, and I'm the only out of all of us that has so far
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  managed to predict a winner out of the two shortlists that we
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  have read through. Upon my reread, it's actually
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  more of a three than a four for me that.
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  Was a shock that was, that would be more, that was more of a
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  shock to me than if you'd have shown up in Hungary.
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  I think it's the best out of what we had, but I I don't think
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  it is particularly great to begin with.
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  I'm Lucy. I'm in a hot tub, far away from
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  everyone else, looking the other way.
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  I was really, I felt a little bit math about it.
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  Winning better than some, worse than others, middle of the pack.
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  I don't think it's going to be remembered as like a great
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  Booker winner, like Booker Prize winner.
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  When I think about now, there's a lot of Booker Prize winners
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  that I don't think are great, but like when I think of like
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  the really good ones and I would struggle to be like, this is a
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  great 1. So I just felt I was sad for
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  audition, obviously, because that was my outright favorite
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  and by quite a bit. So there were tears, there was
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  anger. There was just all the stages of
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  grief that I went through that night.
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  The worst part of it being that Aaron was right.
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  I felt that very acutely and I am that petty.
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  It did annoy me that Aaron won be very annoyed.
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  Hi, I'm Hannah and I'm currently smoking a celebratory
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  cigarettes. Hypothetically.
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  I'm actually so buzzing that David one.
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  When I first initially read Flesh, it was one of the ones I
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  enjoyed and the reread made me like it even more.
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  And this idea that like a singular event kit has an impact
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  on your life and like what's to come.
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  I really like that. I mean, in my heart of hearts, I
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  really wanted Audition to win because for me, that book made
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  me sit and think for a bit. And in the end, I really think
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  Audition actually give it a four.
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  This book is solid. I still really like it, but I'm
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  happy because if the rest of our lives would have won, I would
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  have thrown an actual fit and quit book clubs.
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  For life, right? Can I just chime in there?
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  How do I do really see? If the rest of our lives had
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  won, I would never have watched Sex in the City again.
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  So be like. Jessica Parker died.
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  Yeah, she already let me die by putting it in the shortlist, so
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  she would have. There have been words.
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  There have been words. Hi, I'm Colin, and I'm ritually
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  burning all the Booker shortlist books in a giant pyre.
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  Writing for me right now. And to cleanse.
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  To cleanse the literary scene of all this bad juju.
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  No, But yeah, this book winning, I think very middling to me.
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  I like the book enough. Like it wasn't bad, it wasn't
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  great. I think the entire shortness
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  really was kind of middling. So I wasn't really excited for
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  our our against it. It could have been any book and
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  I think I would have still felt the exact same way.
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  Bob the Booker has also shared his reaction with us.
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  Hello, I'm Bob from Bob the Booker, and we've just had the
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  winner announcement that Flesh by David Zeloy has won and I am
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  delighted in a very rare turn of events.
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  It's one of the books I loved from the beginning and hoped and
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  thought might might do well. I am really, really pleased that
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  this book won. I think it is I, I, I see why
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  it's divisive. I see why a fair few people
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  don't like it, but at the same time I think it is so good at
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  investigating the masculinity and vulnerability and the ways
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  that we hide truths from ourselves, all done through a
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  narrator who is so uncomfortable with the idea of sharing a story
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  with you. And I just found it such a
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  unique reading experience for the way that you are always held
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  at arm's length and the narrator will open a chapter and you
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  realise that years have passed and he doesn't want to bring you
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  up to speed on anything in his life.
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  And I just think it's such a novel way of telling a story and
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  and also just incredibly inventive and fun.
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  And I think there's a real confidence in the way that he's
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  able to keep that tone and keep that style of talking fresh for
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  200 odd pages. And for it to really just drive
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  home the narrative. I think for me, something that's
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  so special is where form and function meet and hear that the
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  way the novel is structured helps tell the story.
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  And in some ways the story could only really be told through that
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  method. And I think that's what's so
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  fabulous about it. So yeah, really, really happy
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  for this win. I agree, Bob.
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  I know no one else really does, but I agree.
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  I mean, I'm happy. I'm happy Bob is is happy, you
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  know? I like the idea he like, he said
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  of someone uncomfortable. What is it like telling his
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  story? That's quite I like.
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  That idea, it is uncomfortable. I I find he is uncomfortable
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  with the idea of being like a storyteller Estevan.
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  But I, I kind of I'm like, I do agree with him.
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  I think it's a really novel way of telling it, and it's kind of
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  interesting, but it's like, see in the center and the end, It's
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  like so melodramatic. It is really punchy in places,
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  but I think it's quite pulpy in other places.
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  And that's why I think I'm like, I definitely think it could have
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  been executed better, but there were parts of it that were
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  really, really good. And I like what he was trying to
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  do at least. Anything anyone wants to add
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  upon reflection? I have just completed Second
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  Lesson through to the Audiobook of Flesh since it was announced
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  as the winner. Even though I said that it's
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  probably lowered in terms of how I would rate it out of five.
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  As I said, I still think it is the best of what we got.
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  And there were several points that that came to me upon my
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  reread. So yeah, I I basically noticed
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  that some of the trends were that there's love interests and
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  nearly every chapter, at least at the start and at the end, we
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  get a new love interest introduced in in every chapter.
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  And, and there is a trend where all of these women seem to
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  reject him for another man, for someone else, whether it's a
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  partner that they already have. Actually, that seems to be the
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  trend. It is a partner that they
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  already have before Ishfan has, has got involved.
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  There also seems to be a strange trend of deaths where nearly
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  every chapter, or at least most of them, seem to feature a death
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  of some kind or reacting and and getting over the death of of
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  someone. And then we see him in multiple
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  different jobs and occupations. And I think that is one of the
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  things that helps us see him grow the most because he is
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  progressing through such a vast range of different jobs.
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  And then just another trend that I had noticed was the injuries
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  there. There seems to be a lot of
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  health things that come up throughout nearly every single
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  chapter. And whether it's in the actual
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  injury that's been obtained or an illness that is happening or
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  COVID happening in the background.
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  I thought that all of those were interesting trends.
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  But one of the most interesting things that I did realize, at
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  least I think I've connected these dots, is the woman that he
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  gets with at the end in Hungary when he's returned, I believe is
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  the same woman from the start. The Who, the 15 year old girl
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  when he's 15, the girl that rejects him.
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  I think that that's the same person because the apartments
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  are described as being very similar.
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  And she mentions that she wishes that she had that Ishwan had
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  seen her her body 30 years previous, which would have
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  placed her about it would have placed them around when they
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  were 15 years old. And she also mentions that she
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  had a child when she was 15. And we know that that girl was
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  sexually active at 15 years old the only.
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  Bit of evidence you have is a 15 year old is sexually active.
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  A lot of them probably are. Yeah, no, but.
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  And also it does does not mean that she's pregnant.
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  No, I OK, I know, I know. It's.
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  Very. I know that I'm jumping to
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  conclusions here, but I think it's one of those things where
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  the author has like connected us back to the start.
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  And especially because the bar that he meets her in the bar
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  that she works in, I'm we're very confident is the same bar
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  that he attends in the 1st chapter with the neighbor, the
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  neighbor's husband. So I'm pretty sure that the
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  author that David Salloy has set it up that we remembered the
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  bar. And we think, hang on a second.
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  This sounds very similar to where he was at the start of
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  this book. And then we're introduced to the
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  woman and I think again that we are supposed to connect the dots
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  and think this is the person from when he was 15 years old.
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  Just to play devil's advocate with you Aaron, a lot of the
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  time in, in any city or country, a lot of the buildings will look
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  similar. Now, speaking as people from
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  Ireland, we know that a lot of our pubs are actually quite
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  indistinguishable from each other when you go in.
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  Also a lot of apartment buildings I'm imagining in
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  Eastern Europe are very similar. So just, I know your theories,
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  probably I'm going to say 90% accurate, but I'm just saying
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  that there's a bit of a niggle there.
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  There's a bit of a, maybe it's not right.
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  No, of course, of course. What do you say about rebuttal,
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  Aaron? You know, I'm I'm not at all
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  claiming that this is fact. I'm just drawing connections
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  here where there might not be any.
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  And I think it's an interesting thing that David Soy has set up.
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  If that's the case. Even the fact that I feel like
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  there's allusions to chapter one in the final chapter.
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  I, I, I'm giving him credit that he's left it up to those readers
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  that are going to go in depth and are going to, and bear the
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  previous information in, in mind when completing the book.
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  And so it's my head cannon. I don't know if it's true or
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  not, but I just wanted to share my theory with with everyone.
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  I love it. It's it's in there with
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  actually, you know what, it's a lot more concrete than a lot of
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  your other series. Now let's tell you what we have
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  coming up. Now that the Booker Prize has
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  wrapped up, we'll be diving into more shortlists and
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  award-winning novels in the future to tell us what you want
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  us to read. We want you to pitch us ideas
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  for the book club. Prior to the shortlist, Aaron
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  and I had been breaking down the novel Eden Shore by Oshing
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  Fagan, chapter by chapter. We'll wrap that up with only a
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  couple of chapters remaining, and we'll be speaking to the
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  writer Oshing on this podcast once we've done so.
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  Also, Aaron met Oshing just a few days ago.
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  So, Aaron, would you like to tell us a tale?
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  I I did meet Oshing. Oshing is a very nice man and
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  he, yeah, talked about the podcast.
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  He actually, I walked off to him and he said, are you Aaron?
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  So he's, he's definitely. Starstruck.
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  He was starstruck. I think he was like because I
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  need my lawyer to get this responding.
• 13:01
  Yeah, subpoena. Here's a subpoena.
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  Can you? He's like, is that one quarter
• 13:07
  of bookies favorite The flesh? It's not too late to join in on
• 13:12
  that. Read through.
• 13:14
  Clearly there are lots to unpack and send us your questions for
• 13:17
  the author, our good friend Austin.
• 13:20
  Following that, we'll have our own award show.
• 13:22
  Keep an eye on our podcast feed and social media for that and
• 13:25
  you guys, the listeners, you'll get to vote in each category.
• 13:29
  Read along and share your thoughts on Instagram at Bookies
• 13:32
  favorite book club. You can also e-mail us
• 13:35
  bookiesfavoritebookclub@gmail.com. Subscribe on whatever podcast
• 13:40
  platform you're listening on so you don't miss the next
• 13:42
  episodes. Share this episode with a book
• 13:44
  lover. You think we'd like this book?
• 13:46
  Read the podcast 5 stars. And thank you so much guys for
• 13:50
  joining us for the Booker Prize 2025 shortlist.
• 13:53
  Bookies out, Bye, see you next time.
• 14:00
  Overnight.