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The prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2025 has been bestowed upon the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, as revealed by the committee.

The Academy praised the 71-year-old's "powerful and prophetic collection that, in the midst of cataclysmic dread, reasserts the strength of creative expression."

A Legacy of Bleak Fiction

Krasznahorkai is celebrated for his dark, somber works, which have earned numerous accolades, including the 2019 National Book Award for literature in translation and the prestigious Man Booker International Prize.

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

Early Beginnings

Hailing in Gyula, Hungary in the mid-1950s, Krasznahorkai first gained recognition with his mid-80s first book Satantango, a dark and hypnotic representation of a disintegrating rural community.

The book would eventually win the Man Booker International Prize recognition in translation nearly three decades later, in 2013.

A Unique Prose Technique

Commonly referred to as postmodern, Krasznahorkai is renowned for his lengthy, intricate sentences (the 12 chapters of his novel each are a one paragraph), apocalyptic and somber subjects, and the kind of persistent force that has led reviewers to liken him to Kafka, Melville, and Gogol.

The novel was widely made into a lengthy film by filmmaker Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a long artistic collaboration.

"He is a great author of grand narratives in the Central European heritage that extends through Franz Kafka to Bernhard, and is characterised by absurdist elements and bizarre extremes," said the Nobel chair, head of the Nobel panel.

He portrayed Krasznahorkai’s style as having "developed towards … flowing structure with extended, meandering lines without periods that has become his hallmark."

Literary Praise

Susan Sontag has called the author as "the contemporary Hungarian expert of end-times," while Sebald commended the universality of his perspective.

Only a few of Krasznahorkai’s works have been rendered in English translation. The critic Wood once noted that his books "are shared like valuable artifacts."

Worldwide Travels

Krasznahorkai’s professional journey has been influenced by exploration as much as by language. He first exited communist the country in 1987, residing a year in the city for a scholarship, and later drew inspiration from east Asia – especially China and Mongolia – for books such as The Prisoner of Urga, and his book on China.

While working on War and War, he journeyed extensively across Europe and lived for a time in Allen Ginsberg’s New York apartment, stating the famous Beat poet's assistance as essential to finishing the work.

Krasznahorkai on His Work

Inquired how he would explain his oeuvre in an interview, Krasznahorkai answered: "Characters; then from letters, words; then from these words, some concise lines; then more sentences that are lengthier, and in the chief very long phrases, for the duration of three and a half decades. Elegance in language. Fun in despair."

On audiences finding his writing for the first time, he noted: "If there are readers who haven’t read my works, I would not suggest anything to explore to them; instead, I’d suggest them to go out, sit down somewhere, perhaps by the banks of a creek, with no tasks, nothing to think about, just staying in quiet like stones. They will in time come across a person who has already read my works."

Award Background

Prior to the declaration, betting agencies had listed the top contenders for this annual honor as Can Xue, an innovative Chinese novelist, and the Hungarian.

The Nobel Prize in Literary Arts has been presented on over a hundred past events since 1901. Current winners include Annie Ernaux, Dylan, the Tanzanian-born writer, Louise Glück, Handke and Tokarczuk. Last year’s recipient was the South Korean writer, the South Korean author best known for her acclaimed novel.

Krasznahorkai will officially be presented with the award and document in a ceremony in the month of December in Stockholm, Sweden.

Additional details forthcoming