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The coveted Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025 has been bestowed upon from Hungary author László Krasznahorkai, as declared by the Nobel awarding body.

The Academy commended the seventy-one-year-old's "powerful and prophetic oeuvre that, in the midst of cataclysmic fear, confirms the power of the arts."

An Esteemed Career of Dystopian Writing

Krasznahorkai is known for his dark, melancholic novels, which have won numerous accolades, for instance the 2019 National Book Award for literature in translation and the 2015 Man Booker International Prize.

A number of of his novels, including his novels Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been made into feature films.

Initial Success

Born in Gyula, Hungary in the mid-1950s, Krasznahorkai first made his mark with his 1985 initial work Satantango, a grim and hypnotic representation of a failing village society.

The work would later win the Man Booker International Prize award in translation nearly three decades later, in the 2010s.

A Unique Literary Style

Often described as postmodernist, Krasznahorkai is renowned for his long, winding prose (the 12 chapters of Satantango each comprise a solitary block of text), apocalyptic and melancholic themes, and the kind of relentless power that has led literary experts to compare him to literary giants like Kafka.

Satantango was notably made into a seven-hour movie by cinematic artist Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a enduring artistic collaboration.

"The author is a significant author of grand narratives in the Central European literary tradition that traces back to Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is characterised by absurdist elements and bizarre extremes," commented the Nobel chair, leader of the Nobel committee.

He described Krasznahorkai’s style as having "developed towards … flowing syntax with extended, meandering lines devoid of periods that has become his trademark."

Critical Acclaim

Susan Sontag has described the author as "the contemporary Hungarian expert of end-times," while WG Sebald praised the broad relevance of his outlook.

A handful of Krasznahorkai’s novels have been published in English translation. The reviewer Wood once wrote that his books "are shared like valuable artifacts."

Global Influences

Krasznahorkai’s career has been shaped by travel as much as by his writing. He first left socialist Hungary in 1987, staying a year in the city for a scholarship, and later found inspiration from Asia – particularly Mongolia and China – for books such as one of his titles, and Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens.

While writing War and War, he journeyed extensively across European nations and stayed in Allen Ginsberg’s New York apartment, stating the famous poet's assistance as vital to completing the novel.

Krasznahorkai on His Work

Inquired how he would explain his oeuvre in an conversation, Krasznahorkai said: "Characters; then from these characters, vocabulary; then from these terms, some short sentences; then more sentences that are lengthier, and in the primary exceptionally extended phrases, for the duration of three and a half decades. Beauty in language. Enjoyment in despair."

On fans finding his work for the initial encounter, he added: "If there are readers who are new to my works, I couldn’t recommend anything to peruse to them; instead, I’d recommend them to venture outside, sit down at a location, perhaps by the edge of a stream, with no tasks, no thoughts, just staying in quiet like boulders. They will in time encounter an individual who has previously read my books."

Award Background

Ahead of the reveal, oddsmakers had pegged the favourites for this year’s award as an avant-garde author, an innovative from China novelist, and Krasznahorkai himself.

The Nobel Award in Literary Arts has been awarded on one hundred seventeen previous occasions since 1901. Current recipients are the French author, Bob Dylan, Gurnah, the poet, Handke and the Polish author. The previous year's winner was the South Korean writer, the South Korean novelist best known for her acclaimed novel.

Krasznahorkai will formally accept the medal and certificate in a function in winter in the Swedish capital.

Updates to come