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The world-renowned Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2025 has been awarded to from Hungary author László Krasznahorkai, as revealed by the committee.

The Committee praised the seventy-one-year-old's "powerful and prophetic body of work that, amidst end-times terror, reasserts the force of creative expression."

A Legacy of Apocalyptic Narratives

Krasznahorkai is celebrated for his bleak, melancholic novels, which have garnered numerous accolades, including the recent National Book Award for translated literature and the 2015 Man Booker International Prize.

A number of of his works, among them his fictional works Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been adapted into movies.

Early Beginnings

Originating in the Hungarian town of Gyula in the mid-1950s, Krasznahorkai first made his mark with his 1985 initial work Satantango, a bleak and hypnotic portrayal of a disintegrating countryside settlement.

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

A Distinctive Literary Style

Often described as avant-garde, Krasznahorkai is known for his extended, meandering phrases (the twelve chapters of his novel each consist of a solitary block of text), dystopian and melancholic themes, and the kind of unwavering intensity that has led literary experts to draw parallels with Kafka, Melville, and Gogol.

Satantango was famously transformed into a lengthy motion picture by director Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a enduring artistic collaboration.

"Krasznahorkai is a significant author of grand narratives in the Central European literary tradition that includes Franz Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is characterised by absurdism and grotesque excess," stated the committee chair, leader of the Nobel panel.

He described Krasznahorkai’s prose as having "progressed to … continuous language with extended, meandering sentences without full stops that has become his hallmark."

Critical Acclaim

Susan Sontag has referred to the author as "the contemporary from Hungary genius of apocalypse," while WG Sebald applauded the universality of his outlook.

Only a few of Krasznahorkai’s novels have been translated into the English language. The critic James Wood once remarked that his books "get passed around like valuable artifacts."

Worldwide Travels

Krasznahorkai’s literary path has been shaped by journeys as much as by language. He first exited socialist Hungary in 1987, spending a year in the city for a fellowship, and later drew inspiration from Asia – especially Mongolia and China – for novels such as a specific work, and Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens.

While writing War and War, he journeyed extensively across the continent and lived for a time in Ginsberg's New York home, describing the famous poet's support as crucial to finishing the novel.

Author's Perspective

Asked how he would describe his oeuvre in an conversation, Krasznahorkai responded: "Letters; then from letters, words; then from these terms, some brief phrases; then additional phrases that are more extended, and in the main very long paragraphs, for the period of 35 years. Beauty in writing. Enjoyment in darkness."

On audiences finding his books for the initial encounter, he continued: "For any readers who haven’t read my novels, I couldn’t recommend a particular book to read to them; rather, I’d suggest them to venture outside, sit down in a place, maybe by the edge of a stream, with no tasks, a clear mind, just staying in tranquility like rocks. They will sooner or later meet a person who has previously read my books."

Literature Prize History

Ahead of the reveal, oddsmakers had pegged the favourites for this annual award as Can Xue, an innovative Chinese author, and the Hungarian.

The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded on one hundred seventeen past events since the early 20th century. Latest laureates include the French author, the musician, Abdulrazak Gurnah, the poet, the Austrian and Olga Tokarczuk. Last year’s recipient was the South Korean writer, the Korean writer renowned for The Vegetarian.

Krasznahorkai will ceremonially receive the medal and certificate in a event in the month of December in Stockholm.

Updates to come