THE 2025 BOOKER PRIZE WINNING AUTHOR OF FLESH

A brilliant novel about money and love and betting everything on a single throw

James and Katherine meet at a wedding in London in 2006, towards the end of the money-for-nothing years. James is a man with a varied past now living alone in a flat in Bloomsbury; Katherine is separated from her husband and working in an interim job in a luxury hotel.

They exchange phone numbers at the wedding, but from then on not much goes according to the script...

'A writer with the whole range of talents' Sunday Times

'Devastatingly powerful... extremely funny, in that understated, unexpected way' Independent on Sunday

'A sharp, truthful, funny portrait of contemporary manners that is also unexpectedly moving' The Times

Spring confirms that [Szalay] is a writer with the whole range of talents... Often outstanding -- Theo Tait * Sunday Times *
A brave and intelligent novel... This is one of those books that leaves you not only with admiration for the novelist, but also with a sense of wonder about the precision of the novel form itself -- Chris Cleave * Guardian *
A texture of truthfulness quite unlike that of any other fiction about London that I know...a very beautifully poised novel -- David Sexton * Evening Standard *
The forensic scrutiny of every aspect of a fledgling relationship, from both points of view, is one of the many delights of Spring... Devastatingly powerful...also extremely funny, in that understated, unexpected way that makes you burst into sudden noise in public places and alarm those around you. Szalay's dialogue is pithy and sharp; his peripheral characters lip-smackingly delicious -- Leyla Sanai * Independent on Sunday *
The lives of two disconsolately unfulfilled people start to blaze, thanks to Szalay's often brutal honesty...formidable ear for dialogue - which transforms the most mundane exchanges into comedy, a la Mike Leigh - and seductively sensuous descriptions -- Siobhan Murphy * Metro *
A brave venture...psychologically realistic -- Melissa McClements * Financial Times *
A sharp, truthful, funny portrait of contemporary manners that is also unexpectedly moving -- Kate Saunders * The Times *
Highly unusual in its realism and astuteness about the way we live now...in its understated way, a very beautifully poised novel -- David Sexton * Scotsman *
Szalay is certainly a writer to look out for... The writer [he] most puts me in mind of is a young Julian Barnes * Thebookbag.co.uk *
Szalay is immensely talented... [he] gets everything right: the atmosphere, the suspense, the inner lives of his characters. Absolutely superb -- William Leith * Evening Standard *

David Szalay is the author of six works of fiction, including London and the South-East, for which he was awarded the Betty Trask and Geoffrey Faber Memorial prizes, All That Man Is, for which he was awarded the Gordon Burn Prize and Plimpton Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Turbulence, which won the Edge Hill Prize. Born in Canada, he grew up in London, and now lives in Vienna. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages.