Service95 Book Club With Dua Lipa

Service95

Welcome to the Service95 Book Club With Dua Lipa. Join Dua each month as she takes you into the world of a book she has loved – and talks to the writer who brought it to life. Expect reads that will make you laugh, cry, and even change the way you think. There are no rules when it comes to the books Dua chooses. Here, she shares her favourite reads straight from her bookshelf with you. Throughout each month, we’ll also be opening up the Service95 Book Club archive, so you can listen to even more of the thought-provoking, funny and insightful conversations Dua has had with her favourite authors over the past couple of years. Whether you read a book a week or haven’t finished one in a year, there's something for everyone here. We can't wait for you to join us. Find out more @service95bookclub

  1. 3 DAYS AGO

    David Szalay Reads from His Novel, Flesh, Exploring a Tour of Duty in Iraq

    This month on the Service95 Book Club podcast, Dua is joined by award-winning author David Szalay to discuss his quietly powerful novel Flesh – selected as Dua’s Monthly Read for October. Told through a series of spare, intimate portraits, the novel captures moments of human vulnerability with a precision that feels deeply real.  In a Service95 exclusive, David reads from a chapter set in Iraq, where the protagonist István and his fellow soldiers find themselves beside a hotel pool, suspended in the strange stillness of their return from war. There is no drama, no action – just silence, heat, and waiting.  “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,” David tells Dua in their conversation, recorded live at the New York Public Library, which is also available as a podcast here.  It’s a powerful moment in Flesh, and a testament to the realism that threads through the entire novel.   Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble   Get in touch:  📩 Email us – books@service95.com  📲 Follow @service95bookclub on Instagram for updates  📚 Subscribe to the Service95 Book Club newsletter – introduced each month by Dua – at www.service95.com  And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    11 min
  2. 6 OCT

    Flesh: David Szalay’s Spare and Unvarnished Portrait of a Man Adrift

    This month’s Service95 Book Club episode comes to you live from the New York Public Library, in partnership with Spotify, recorded in September in front of an audience. Dua is joined by Booker-shortlisted writer David Szalay to discuss his astonishing new novel Flesh - a brilliantly spare and unsettling portrait of a man caught between desire, social classes, and fate.  The story follows István from a bleak Hungarian housing estate to the upper echelons of London society. But David resists the hero’s arc: István is passive, pliable, often silent – a man seemingly buffeted by events rather than steering them. His life unfolds through abrupt leaps in time, leaving the reader to piece together the shadows between.  In their conversation, Dua and David explore why he chose such pared-back prose, to what extent István exemplifies ‘a primative form of masculinity’, and how money, class, and power warp even our most intimate relationships. They touch on the book’s unresolved tensions, from István’s relationships with women and his stepson, to the existential loneliness that haunts every page.  Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble   Get in touch:  📩 Email us – books@service95.com  📲 Follow @service95bookclub on Instagram for updates  📚 Subscribe to the Service95 Book Club newsletter – introduced each month by Dua – at www.service95.com  And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    40 min

About

Welcome to the Service95 Book Club With Dua Lipa. Join Dua each month as she takes you into the world of a book she has loved – and talks to the writer who brought it to life. Expect reads that will make you laugh, cry, and even change the way you think. There are no rules when it comes to the books Dua chooses. Here, she shares her favourite reads straight from her bookshelf with you. Throughout each month, we’ll also be opening up the Service95 Book Club archive, so you can listen to even more of the thought-provoking, funny and insightful conversations Dua has had with her favourite authors over the past couple of years. Whether you read a book a week or haven’t finished one in a year, there's something for everyone here. We can't wait for you to join us. Find out more @service95bookclub

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