Flesh, Bondi Literary Salon Book Club

Join the Bondi Literary Salon for our special Booker Prize book club, hosted by David Francis! In our gathering, we will discuss David Szalay's novel, Flesh.

WHEN: Wednesday, 11th February 2026, at Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore; please arrive at 6.45pm for a prompt 7pm start.

TICKETS: Admission: $25.00 (excluding external fees). Your ticket includes a drink on arrival and nibbles during the evening.

WINNER FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025 – Chance. Luck. Choice. The addictive, darkly funny novel of one man’s rise and fall.

The Book:

Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he is unfamiliar with the social rituals at school and soon becomes isolated, with his neighbour – a married woman close to his mother’s age – as his only companion. These encounters shift into a clandestine relationship that István himself can barely understand, and his life soon spirals out of control.

As the years pass, he is carried gradually upwards on the twenty-first century’s tides of money and power, moving from the army to the company of London’s super-rich, with his own competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth winning him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely.

Spare and penetrating, Flesh is the finest novel yet by a master of realism, asking profound questions about what drives a life: what makes it worth living, and what breaks it.

The Author:

David Szalay is the author of four previous works of fiction: Spring, The Innocent, London and the South-East, for which he was awarded the Betty Trask and Geoffrey Faber Memorial prizes, and All That Man Is, for which he was awarded the Gordon Burn prize and Plimpton Prize for Fiction, and shortlisted for the Man Booker prize. Born in Canada, he grew up in London, and now lives in Budapest.

The Host:

David Francis has been a long time Bondi Literary Salon fan, and avid reader from an early age thanks to both parents filling him with a love of words and stories. He has a degree in English Lit from Otago University which helped with his love of the classics and poetry, and has recently (re) dived into a Shakespeare rabbit hole. 

Some of Dave's favourite books include: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera and Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.

A propulsive, hypnotic novel about a man who is unravelled by a series of events beyond his grasp.

About The Bondi Literary Salon

Bondi Literary Salon was established in 2018, it is the in-house book club of beloved Bondi institution, Gertrude & Alice. The Bondi Literary Salon endeavours to explore the vast world of literature each month, with a selection that reflects a focus on diverse writers and stories; delving into both classic and contemporary fiction, as well as non-fiction. 

Our philosophy has always been to use language and literature not only as a tool for connection and community, but as an insight into worlds we have not had the pleasure of visiting ourselves. We welcome all - young and old, those with a life-long love of literature, or whose relationship may be only beginning. Join us in the unmatched comfort of an after-hours bookstore, accompanied by wine and cheese, for an evening spent discussing books and building community.

About Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore:

Rated as one of the top 10 bookstores in the world by National Geographic, Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore is an oasis for writers, readers, and coffee lovers. Books overflow from the shelves of their store, featuring a mix of new, second-hand, antiquarian and rare books. Stay a while & enjoy some home made chai, and amazing coffee, and unearth a book treasure or two. Read more about the bookstore's story here, and about the real Gertrude & Alice here.