🔗 Share this article

The world-renowned Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2025 has been awarded to the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, as announced by the Swedish Academy.

The Academy commended the author's "compelling and visionary oeuvre that, within cataclysmic fear, reaffirms the power of creative expression."

A Renowned Path of Dystopian Narratives

Krasznahorkai is known for his bleak, pensive novels, which have earned several prizes, such as the 2019 National Book Award for literature in translation and the 2015 Man Booker International Prize.

Many of his novels, including his titles Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been adapted into movies.

Initial Success

Born in the Hungarian town of Gyula in the mid-1950s, Krasznahorkai first made his mark with his mid-80s debut novel Satantango, a grim and captivating depiction of a collapsing countryside settlement.

The work would go on to secure the Man Booker International Prize recognition in English nearly three decades later, in 2013.

A Unique Prose Technique

Commonly referred to as postmodernist, Krasznahorkai is renowned for his lengthy, intricate prose (the 12 chapters of Satantango each consist of a solitary block of text), dystopian and somber subjects, and the kind of persistent power that has led critics to compare him to Gogol, Melville and Kafka.

Satantango was famously adapted into a lengthy motion picture by filmmaker Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a enduring artistic collaboration.

"Krasznahorkai is a remarkable author of grand narratives in the Central European literary tradition that extends through Franz Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is characterised by absurdist elements and grotesque excess," said the committee chair, chair of the Nobel committee.

He portrayed Krasznahorkai’s style as having "evolved into … continuous structure with long, winding phrases lacking full stops that has become his hallmark."

Expert Opinions

Sontag has described the author as "today's from Hungary master of apocalypse," while Sebald praised the broad relevance of his outlook.

A handful of Krasznahorkai’s novels have been translated into English translation. The reviewer James Wood once wrote that his books "get passed around like valuable artifacts."

Worldwide Travels

Krasznahorkai’s career has been molded by travel as much as by literature. He first departed from the communist the country in the late 80s, spending a twelve months in West Berlin for a scholarship, and later found inspiration from Asia – particularly Asian nations – for works such as one of his titles, and another novel.

While writing War and War, he journeyed extensively across European nations and resided temporarily in the legendary poet's New York home, describing the famous Beat poet's assistance as essential to finishing the novel.

Krasznahorkai on His Work

Inquired how he would describe his writing in an conversation, Krasznahorkai said: "Letters; then from letters, vocabulary; then from these words, some brief phrases; then additional phrases that are lengthier, and in the main extremely lengthy phrases, for the duration of three and a half decades. Elegance in prose. Enjoyment in despair."

On audiences discovering his books for the first time, he noted: "Should there be people who are new to my books, I would not suggest anything to peruse to them; rather, I’d advise them to step out, settle in a place, possibly by the edge of a stream, with no tasks, a clear mind, just staying in tranquility like stones. They will in time encounter an individual who has encountered my books."

Literature Prize History

Prior to the declaration, betting agencies had listed the frontrunners for this annual honor as Can Xue, an experimental from China novelist, and Krasznahorkai himself.

The Nobel Honor in Literature has been given on one hundred seventeen previous occasions since 1901. Current winners include Annie Ernaux, Dylan, the Tanzanian-born writer, Louise Glück, Handke and the Polish author. The previous year's honoree was Han Kang, the from South Korea writer most famous for The Vegetarian.

Krasznahorkai will officially accept the award and document in a function in December in Stockholm.

Additional details forthcoming