Esteemed Writer László Krasznahorkai Receives the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literary Arts

The coveted Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025 has been awarded to the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, as revealed by the committee.

The Jury highlighted the author's "gripping and imaginative body of work that, within apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the force of art."

An Esteemed Career of Dystopian Writing

Krasznahorkai is known for his dystopian, melancholic books, which have won numerous awards, including the recent National Book Award for translated literature and the 2015 Man Booker International Prize.

A number of of his novels, notably his fictional works Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been made into movies.

Initial Success

Originating in Gyula, Hungary in 1954, Krasznahorkai first rose to prominence with his mid-80s debut novel Satantango, a bleak and captivating representation of a collapsing rural community.

The work would later win the Man Booker International Prize honor in translation nearly three decades later, in the 2010s.

A Distinctive Prose Technique

Frequently labeled as postmodernist, Krasznahorkai is known for his extended, meandering phrases (the dozen sections of the book each are a one paragraph), apocalyptic and somber motifs, and the kind of relentless intensity that has led reviewers to liken him to Gogol, Melville and Kafka.

Satantango was notably transformed into a seven-hour motion picture by cinematic artist Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a lengthy artistic collaboration.

"The author is a significant author of grand narratives in the Central European tradition that includes Franz Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is characterised by the absurd and grotesque excess," said Anders Olsson, head of the Nobel panel.

He described Krasznahorkai’s writing as having "developed towards … continuous structure with extended, meandering phrases without punctuation that has become his hallmark."

Critical Acclaim

The critic Susan Sontag has called the author as "the modern Hungarian genius of the apocalyptic," while the writer W.G. Sebald applauded the universality of his vision.

A handful of Krasznahorkai’s novels have been rendered in English translation. The literary critic Wood once remarked that his books "are shared like valuable artifacts."

Global Influences

Krasznahorkai’s literary path has been molded by exploration as much as by literature. He first left the communist his homeland in 1987, spending a year in West Berlin for a scholarship, and later found inspiration from Asia – notably Mongolia and China – for novels such as one of his titles, and Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens.

While working on this novel, he explored across the continent and resided temporarily in the legendary poet's New York apartment, describing the renowned Beat poet's backing as crucial to completing the book.

Writer's Own Words

Inquired how he would explain his work in an conversation, Krasznahorkai answered: "Characters; then from these characters, vocabulary; then from these words, some short sentences; then more sentences that are longer, and in the main very long paragraphs, for the duration of three and a half decades. Beauty in writing. Fun in darkness."

On readers finding his books for the initial encounter, he noted: "If there are individuals who are new to my novels, I would not suggest a particular book to explore to them; on the contrary, I’d suggest them to go out, sit down at a location, maybe by the banks of a creek, with no obligations, a clear mind, just being in quiet like rocks. They will in time meet a person who has already read my novels."

Literature Prize History

Prior to the declaration, oddsmakers had listed the favourites for this annual prize as the Chinese writer, an experimental Chinese novelist, and the Hungarian.

The Nobel Award in Literary Arts has been presented on 117 prior instances since 1901. Recent winners include Annie Ernaux, Dylan, Abdulrazak Gurnah, the poet, Peter Handke and Olga Tokarczuk. The previous year's recipient was the South Korean writer, the from South Korea novelist most famous for The Vegetarian.

Krasznahorkai will officially accept the award and diploma in a ceremony in December in Stockholm, Sweden.

Additional details forthcoming