🔗 Share this article

The coveted Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025 has been bestowed upon Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, as revealed by the Swedish Academy.

The Committee praised the seventy-one-year-old's "compelling and visionary collection that, amidst apocalyptic fear, reaffirms the strength of the arts."

An Esteemed Career of Dystopian Fiction

Krasznahorkai is celebrated for his bleak, melancholic works, which have won several accolades, including the recent National Book Award for international writing and the 2015 Man Booker International Prize.

Many of his books, among them his fictional works his debut and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been made into movies.

Debut Novel

Originating in the Hungarian town of Gyula in 1954, Krasznahorkai first gained recognition with his mid-80s debut novel Satantango, a bleak and mesmerising representation of a disintegrating countryside settlement.

The book would go on to secure the Man Booker International Prize award in translation many years later, in the 2010s.

An Unconventional Prose Technique

Often described as postmodern, Krasznahorkai is renowned for his long, winding sentences (the twelve chapters of Satantango each consist of a one paragraph), apocalyptic and melancholic motifs, and the kind of persistent power that has led literary experts to liken him to Kafka, Melville, and Gogol.

Satantango was notably transformed into a lengthy motion picture by filmmaker Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a long creative partnership.

"He is a remarkable writer of epic tales in the Central European tradition that includes Kafka to the Austrian writer, and is defined by absurdism and bizarre extremes," said the Nobel chair, chair of the Nobel panel.

He portrayed Krasznahorkai’s prose as having "developed towards … smooth structure with lengthy, intricate phrases lacking periods that has become his signature."

Critical Acclaim

Susan Sontag has called the author as "the modern Hungarian genius of end-times," while Sebald applauded the wide appeal of his perspective.

Just a small number of Krasznahorkai’s books have been published in English translation. The literary critic James Wood once noted that his books "are shared like rare currency."

Worldwide Travels

Krasznahorkai’s professional journey has been molded by travel as much as by his writing. He first exited the communist the country in 1987, residing a year in the city for a scholarship, and later drew inspiration from Eastern Asia – notably Asian nations – for novels such as one of his titles, and his book on China.

While working on this novel, he travelled widely across Europe and stayed in Allen Ginsberg’s New York residence, describing the legendary Beat poet's support as essential to completing the novel.

Author's Perspective

Asked how he would characterize his writing in an discussion, Krasznahorkai responded: "Characters; then from these characters, vocabulary; then from these words, some short sentences; then more sentences that are more extended, and in the chief extremely lengthy phrases, for the duration of decades. Elegance in prose. Enjoyment in darkness."

On audiences discovering his books for the first time, he added: "If there are individuals who haven’t read my works, I couldn’t recommend a particular book to read to them; on the contrary, I’d advise them to step out, sit down at a location, possibly by the edge of a stream, with no tasks, no thoughts, just remaining in quiet like boulders. They will in time meet a person who has previously read my works."

Nobel Prize Context

Before the announcement, oddsmakers had pegged the frontrunners for this year’s prize as Can Xue, an innovative Chinese writer, and Krasznahorkai.

The Nobel Honor in Literary Arts has been given on one hundred seventeen prior instances since 1901. Current laureates include the French author, Bob Dylan, the Tanzanian-born writer, the poet, the Austrian and Tokarczuk. The previous year's recipient was the South Korean writer, the Korean novelist best known for her acclaimed novel.

Krasznahorkai will officially receive the medal and certificate in a event in December in Stockholm, Sweden.

Updates to come