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The coveted Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025 has been bestowed upon from Hungary author László Krasznahorkai, as declared by the committee.

The Academy commended the author's "powerful and prophetic body of work that, in the midst of cataclysmic terror, reasserts the force of art."

An Esteemed Career of Dystopian Fiction

Krasznahorkai is renowned for his dystopian, somber books, which have won several prizes, such as the 2019 National Book Award for literature in translation and the 2015 Man Booker International Prize.

Several of his novels, among them his fictional works Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been turned into movies.

Initial Success

Born in Gyula, Hungary in 1954, Krasznahorkai first gained recognition with his mid-80s initial work Satantango, a dark and captivating depiction of a disintegrating village society.

The book would go on to secure the Man Booker International Prize recognition in translation many years later, in 2013.

A Unique Literary Style

Often described as postmodernist, Krasznahorkai is famous for his lengthy, intricate prose (the 12 chapters of Satantango each comprise a one paragraph), apocalyptic and somber motifs, and the kind of unwavering force that has led reviewers to compare him to Kafka, Melville, and Gogol.

This work was widely transformed into a seven-hour motion picture by filmmaker Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a enduring artistic collaboration.

"The author is a great author of grand narratives in the Central European heritage that extends through Franz Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is marked by absurdist elements and grotesque excess," commented the committee chair, leader of the Nobel panel.

He described Krasznahorkai’s prose as having "evolved into … flowing syntax with extended, meandering phrases without periods that has become his trademark."

Critical Acclaim

Susan Sontag has called the author as "the modern Hungarian master of end-times," while the writer W.G. Sebald applauded the universality of his vision.

Just a small number of Krasznahorkai’s books have been rendered in English. The critic James Wood once remarked that his books "circulate like valuable artifacts."

International Inspiration

Krasznahorkai’s career has been influenced by travel as much as by language. He first left the communist his homeland in the late 80s, spending a period in Berlin for a fellowship, and later found inspiration from Eastern Asia – particularly China and Mongolia – for novels such as The Prisoner of Urga, and another novel.

While developing War and War, he journeyed extensively across the continent and lived for a time in the legendary poet's New York residence, noting the famous Beat poet's backing as crucial to finalizing the work.

Author's Perspective

Questioned how he would describe his work in an interview, Krasznahorkai responded: "Characters; then from these characters, vocabulary; then from these terms, some concise lines; then further lines that are more extended, and in the chief extremely lengthy phrases, for the duration of decades. Elegance in prose. Enjoyment in hell."

On audiences finding his books for the initial encounter, he continued: "If there are people who are new to my works, I couldn’t recommend a particular book to read to them; rather, I’d suggest them to go out, settle somewhere, possibly by the banks of a creek, with no obligations, nothing to think about, just staying in silence like boulders. They will in time encounter someone who has already read my works."

Nobel Prize Context

Before the announcement, bookmakers had listed the favourites for this year's award as Can Xue, an innovative Chinese novelist, and Krasznahorkai.

The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded on one hundred seventeen prior instances since 1901. Latest winners are the French author, Dylan, Gurnah, Louise Glück, the Austrian and Tokarczuk. Last year’s winner was Han Kang, the from South Korea novelist most famous for The Vegetarian.

Krasznahorkai will formally receive the award and diploma in a event in the month of December in the Swedish capital.

Updates to come