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Hungarian British author David Szalay’s acclaimed novels include All That Man Is and Turbulence. His most recent book, Flesh, now out in paperback, won last year’s Booker Prize and follows the rags-to-riches trajectory of an impulsive Hungarian man.
‘The Diary of Samuel Pepys’ (1660–69)
Picking this up to read a single short entry, I can easily get stuck with it for an hour. As fascinating as the differences between our world and the world of the 1660s are the similarities. And the man himself? He’s just very human, and massively engaging in the perfect frankness he brings to his endeavor. Buy it here.
‘Lord Jim’ by Joseph Conrad (1900)
Conrad’s Marlow might be the first appearance of a pervasive 20th-century type: world-weary, disillusioned, and discouraged by what he has seen of humanity, but somehow still fundamentally humane. It is this perspective that makes the novel so morally modern and therefore so full of urgent interest, even now, well over a century after it was written. Buy it here.
‘As I Lay Dying’ by William Faulkner (1930)
The device of having chapters offering different points of view on some situation has become perhaps overfamiliar. In what might be its original iteration here, though, it feels fresh and powerful. Particularly when combined with the way Faulkner ventriloquizes the rough language of his characters, while giving them a sort of Homeric grandeur in their closeness to the essential experiences of human life. Buy it here.
‘The Vegetarian’ by Han Kang (2007)
The three segments of this novel interact in powerful but mysterious ways. Its impact is unquestionable, but its meaning (something to do with physicality) is ultimately impossible to pin down— which is perhaps as it should be. Buy it here.
‘The Largesse of the Sea Maiden’ by Denis Johnson (2018)
With the naturalness of someone talking, stories flow into one another, or merge, or divide. The comedy is deeply humane. The prose is a constant delight. The profundity sneaks up on you. Buy it here.
‘Alphabetical Diaries’ by Sheila Heti (2024)
A sort of cubist work of autofiction, which I hope makes it sound intriguing rather than impenetrable. Heti took years’ worth of personal diaries, got a computer to arrange the sentences in alphabetical order, and then, without tampering with the order, winnowed the material to the length of a novella. The result is unique and mesmerizing. Buy it here.
The Booker Prize-winning author recommends works by William Faulkner, Han Kang, and Sheila Heti