Canadian-Hungarian-British writer David Szalay won the Booker Prize for fiction on Monday for 'Flesh,' the story of an ordinary man's life over several decades in which what isn't on the page is just as important as what is.

Szalay, 51, beat five other finalists, including favorites Andrew Miller and Kiran Desai, to take the coveted literary award, which brings a 50,000-pound (USD 66,000) payday and a big boost to the winner's sales and profile.