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The world-renowned Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025 has been granted to the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, as declared by the Nobel awarding body.

The Jury highlighted the author's "powerful and prophetic oeuvre that, within end-times dread, reaffirms the strength of creative expression."

A Renowned Path of Bleak Writing

Krasznahorkai is celebrated for his bleak, pensive works, which have won many awards, such as the 2019 National Book Award for literature in translation and the 2015 Man Booker International Prize.

Many of his books, including his novels his debut and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been made into cinematic works.

Debut Novel

Born in Gyula, Hungary in the mid-1950s, Krasznahorkai first made his mark with his 1985 debut novel Satantango, a dark and mesmerising representation of a disintegrating village society.

The work would later secure the Man Booker International Prize honor in translation decades after, in 2013.

An Unconventional Writing Approach

Frequently labeled as postmodernist, Krasznahorkai is known for his long, winding sentences (the twelve chapters of Satantango each comprise a solitary block of text), apocalyptic and pensive motifs, and the kind of unwavering force that has led reviewers to draw parallels with Kafka, Melville, and Gogol.

Satantango was notably made into a seven-hour motion picture by director the director Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a long artistic collaboration.

"He is a great writer of epic tales in the European heritage that traces back to Kafka to Bernhard, and is defined by absurdist elements and grotesque exaggeration," stated Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel jury.

He characterized Krasznahorkai’s writing as having "evolved into … smooth language with lengthy, intricate lines lacking full stops that has become his hallmark."

Literary Praise

The critic Susan Sontag has referred to the author as "today's from Hungary master of apocalypse," while WG Sebald commended the universality of his outlook.

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

International Inspiration

Krasznahorkai’s career has been shaped by travel as much as by his writing. He first left socialist the country in 1987, spending a twelve months in Berlin for a scholarship, and later was inspired from Eastern Asia – notably Asian nations – for works such as a specific work, and his book on China.

While writing War and War, he journeyed extensively across European nations and lived for a time in the legendary poet's New York apartment, describing the famous writer's backing as vital to finishing the novel.

Krasznahorkai on His Work

Questioned how he would describe his oeuvre in an interview, Krasznahorkai said: "Characters; then from these characters, words; then from these terms, some concise lines; then additional phrases that are more extended, and in the primary very long phrases, for the duration of 35 years. Elegance in prose. Fun in darkness."

On readers discovering his writing for the first time, he added: "If there are readers who haven’t read my works, I couldn’t recommend a particular book to explore to them; rather, I’d advise them to step out, rest at a location, possibly by the edge of a stream, with nothing to do, no thoughts, just staying in quiet like rocks. They will sooner or later meet a person who has already read my novels."

Literature Prize History

Ahead of the reveal, bookmakers had pegged the frontrunners for this annual honor as Can Xue, an avant garde Chinese writer, and Krasznahorkai himself.

The Nobel Award in Writing has been awarded on over a hundred previous occasions since the early 20th century. Recent recipients include Ernaux, Dylan, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Glück, the Austrian and Olga Tokarczuk. The previous year's recipient was Han Kang, the Korean writer most famous for her acclaimed novel.

Krasznahorkai will ceremonially be presented with the medal and diploma in a function in winter in Stockholm, Sweden.

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