László Krasznahorkai Receives the Nobel Nobel Prize in Literature
The prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2025 has been awarded to from Hungary author László Krasznahorkai, as revealed by the Swedish Academy.
The Jury commended the 71-year-old's "gripping and imaginative oeuvre that, within apocalyptic dread, reasserts the power of the arts."
A Legacy of Bleak Fiction
Krasznahorkai is renowned for his bleak, melancholic novels, which have earned several prizes, such as the 2019 National Book Award for international writing and the 2015 Man Booker International Prize.
Several of his works, among them his fictional works Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been made into movies.
Debut Novel
Hailing in a Hungarian locale in 1954, Krasznahorkai first made his mark with his 1985 first book his seminal novel, a bleak and captivating representation of a disintegrating countryside settlement.
The work would later earn the Man Booker International Prize award in the English language decades after, in 2013.
An Unconventional Prose Technique
Frequently labeled as avant-garde, Krasznahorkai is renowned for his extended, meandering sentences (the 12 chapters of his novel each are a solitary block of text), bleak and somber motifs, and the kind of persistent force that has led reviewers to draw parallels with Kafka, Melville, and Gogol.
Satantango was famously made into a extended movie by cinematic artist Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a long working relationship.
"Krasznahorkai is a remarkable writer of epic tales in the central European tradition that includes Kafka to the Austrian writer, and is defined by the absurd and bizarre extremes," said the committee chair, head of the Nobel jury.
He described Krasznahorkai’s prose as having "developed towards … flowing syntax with lengthy, intricate sentences devoid of punctuation that has become his hallmark."
Literary Praise
Susan Sontag has referred to the author as "today's from Hungary expert of the apocalyptic," while WG Sebald applauded the wide appeal of his vision.
Just a small number of Krasznahorkai’s novels have been translated into English. The critic Wood once noted that his books "are shared like valuable artifacts."
Worldwide Travels
Krasznahorkai’s career has been influenced by exploration as much as by language. He first left the communist his homeland in 1987, residing a twelve months in West Berlin for a scholarship, and later drew inspiration from east Asia – particularly China and Mongolia – for books such as The Prisoner of Urga, and another novel.
While developing War and War, he journeyed extensively across the continent and stayed in Ginsberg's New York home, stating the renowned poet's support as essential to finalizing the work.
Writer's Own Words
Questioned how he would explain his work in an interview, Krasznahorkai responded: "Letters; then from these characters, vocabulary; then from these words, some brief phrases; then more sentences that are more extended, and in the chief exceptionally extended sentences, for the span of three and a half decades. Elegance in prose. Fun in hell."
On audiences discovering his writing for the initial encounter, he added: "If there are people who haven’t read my novels, I couldn’t recommend anything to peruse to them; instead, I’d recommend them to go out, sit down at a location, perhaps by the banks of a creek, with no obligations, no thoughts, just staying in quiet like rocks. They will sooner or later come across an individual who has already read my works."
Award Background
Before the announcement, bookmakers had listed the frontrunners for this year's prize as the Chinese writer, an avant garde from China author, and Krasznahorkai himself.
The Nobel Honor in Writing has been awarded on over a hundred previous occasions since 1901. Recent winners include Annie Ernaux, Dylan, the Tanzanian-born writer, the poet, Peter Handke and the Polish author. The most recent honoree was Han Kang, the from South Korea writer renowned for The Vegetarian.
Krasznahorkai will officially accept the prize medal and certificate in a event in winter in Stockholm.
Additional details forthcoming