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The prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025 has been bestowed upon the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, as announced by the Nobel awarding body.

The Jury commended the author's "gripping and imaginative body of work that, in the midst of end-times fear, confirms the power of the arts."

A Legacy of Apocalyptic Narratives

Krasznahorkai is renowned for his dark, pensive books, which have earned many accolades, such as the 2019 National Book Award for literature in translation and the 2015 Man Booker International Prize.

Several of his novels, notably his novels Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been turned into cinematic works.

Debut Novel

Hailing in the Hungarian town of Gyula in 1954, Krasznahorkai first gained recognition with his mid-80s first book Satantango, a dark and mesmerising depiction of a failing countryside settlement.

The novel would later secure the Man Booker International Prize honor in translation many years later, in 2013.

A Unique Writing Approach

Commonly referred to as avant-garde, Krasznahorkai is renowned for his lengthy, intricate phrases (the twelve chapters of Satantango each are a solitary block of text), apocalyptic and pensive subjects, and the kind of relentless intensity that has led literary experts to liken him to Gogol, Melville and Kafka.

This work was widely transformed into a extended movie by director Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a long creative partnership.

"He is a remarkable epic writer in the European heritage that includes Franz Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is defined by absurdism and bizarre extremes," commented Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel panel.

He portrayed Krasznahorkai’s writing as having "progressed to … continuous language with lengthy, intricate phrases lacking punctuation that has become his trademark."

Expert Opinions

Susan Sontag has referred to the author as "today's Hungarian genius of the apocalyptic," while WG Sebald praised the universality of his perspective.

A handful of Krasznahorkai’s books have been published in the English language. The reviewer James Wood once noted that his books "circulate like rare currency."

Worldwide Travels

Krasznahorkai’s literary path has been shaped by journeys as much as by literature. He first departed from socialist his homeland in 1987, staying a period in West Berlin for a grant, and later found inspiration from east Asia – particularly Mongolia and China – for books such as The Prisoner of Urga, and another novel.

While working on War and War, he travelled widely across Europe and resided temporarily in Ginsberg's New York residence, describing the legendary poet's backing as essential to completing the book.

Author's Perspective

Questioned how he would explain his writing in an conversation, Krasznahorkai answered: "Characters; then from these characters, vocabulary; then from these terms, some concise lines; then more sentences that are longer, and in the primary very long paragraphs, for the period of three and a half decades. Elegance in prose. Enjoyment in hell."

On audiences discovering his writing for the initial encounter, he noted: "Should there be people who haven’t read my works, I couldn’t recommend any specific title to read to them; instead, I’d advise them to venture outside, settle in a place, perhaps by the banks of a creek, with no tasks, nothing to think about, just staying in quiet like rocks. They will sooner or later come across someone who has encountered my novels."

Nobel Prize Context

Ahead of the reveal, oddsmakers had ranked the favourites for this year’s award as an avant-garde author, an avant garde Chinese novelist, and the Hungarian.

The Nobel Honor in Literature has been given on 117 prior instances since 1901. Latest recipients include Annie Ernaux, Dylan, the Tanzanian-born writer, Louise Glück, Peter Handke and Olga Tokarczuk. The previous year's winner was Han Kang, the Korean writer best known for The Vegetarian.

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

Additional details forthcoming