David Szalay’s novel Flesh, which earlier this week won the Booker Prize, will be adapted as a film, Deadline reports.
Szalay’s novel, published in the U.S. by Scribner in April, follows the journey of István, a Hungarian man in London whose life has been thrown into turmoil by a past trauma. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus praised the book as “an emotionally acute study of manliness.”
The novel was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence. On Monday, the book won the prestigious Booker Prize; Roddy Doyle, the chair of judges for the award, said, “The book is about living, and the strangeness of living and, as we read, as we turn the pages, we’re glad we’re alive and reading—experiencing—this extraordinary, singular novel.”
House Productions, the company behind films including Conclave, The Zone of Interest, and The Iron Claw, is developing the adaptation. Deadline reports that İlker Çatak, the German director of I Was, I Am, I Will Be and The Teachers' Lounge, is in talks to helm the film.
“When something moves from one form to another it is transformed in profound ways, so I’m sure it will be different, but it will be fascinating to see,” Szalay said. “It does have quite a cinematic quality. I’ve never written a screenplay, so I wouldn’t want to do it on my own, I wouldn’t feel I had the expertise to do that or the experience. But I feel I have something that I could contribute to it, and I will probably be in some way involved in the writing.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
