In a novel composed of spare, subtle portraits, few moments feel as real as the chapter set in Iraq in David Szalay’s Flesh – Dua’s Monthly Read for October. In this Service95 Book Club exclusive, David reads from the passage where István and fellow soldiers wait beside a hotel pool in Iraq, surrounded by waning heat, silence, and the boredom of returning home from tour.
There is no immediate action. The men sit idle, smoking, watching the water, caught in a strange limbo where nothing is happening. “The idea of the soldiers having this very boring journey back from Iraq at the end of their tour of duty there... the boring texture of returning... that seemed to me to unlock the strong flavour of reality,” says David in his conversation with Dua at the live recording at New York Public Library (which you can watch here).
It’s a powerful moment in Flesh, and a testament to the realism that threads through the entire novel. Watch the full reading below...
Flesh by David Szalay is Dua’s Monthly Read For October – discover her full conversation with the author and more with the Service95 Book Club...
WATCH Dua’s interview with the author, David Szalay
LISTEN to the interview on the go with the new Service95 Book Club podcast
BOOKMARK the novels and music that inspire David Szalay
