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The prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025 has been granted to the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, as declared by the Swedish Academy.

The Academy praised the 71-year-old's "compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of end-times fear, reasserts the power of the arts."

A Legacy of Dystopian Narratives

Krasznahorkai is celebrated for his dark, melancholic novels, which have earned several awards, including the 2019 National Book Award for international writing and the 2015 Man Booker International Prize.

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

Debut Novel

Born in Gyula, Hungary in the mid-1950s, Krasznahorkai first rose to prominence with his 1985 initial work his seminal novel, a bleak and hypnotic portrayal of a disintegrating rural community.

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

A Unique Prose Technique

Frequently labeled as avant-garde, Krasznahorkai is renowned for his long, winding phrases (the dozen sections of Satantango each consist of a one paragraph), apocalyptic and pensive themes, and the kind of persistent power that has led critics to draw parallels with Gogol, Melville and Kafka.

The novel was widely adapted into a seven-hour motion picture by cinematic artist Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a lengthy artistic collaboration.

"He is a significant writer of epic tales in the central European tradition that traces back to Franz Kafka to the Austrian writer, and is marked by absurdist elements and grotesque excess," stated the committee chair, head of the Nobel panel.

He portrayed Krasznahorkai’s style as having "developed towards … smooth language with extended, meandering phrases devoid of full stops that has become his trademark."

Literary Praise

Susan Sontag has referred to the author as "the modern from Hungary master of apocalypse," while Sebald praised the universality of his perspective.

Just a small number of Krasznahorkai’s works have been translated into English. The literary critic James Wood once wrote that his books "are shared like precious items."

International Inspiration

Krasznahorkai’s literary path has been influenced by journeys as much as by language. He first left socialist his homeland in the late 80s, residing a period in West Berlin for a fellowship, and later was inspired from Eastern Asia – particularly Mongolia and China – for works such as a specific work, and Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens.

While writing War and War, he journeyed extensively across Europe and stayed in Allen Ginsberg’s New York home, stating the famous poet's backing as crucial to completing the work.

Writer's Own Words

Questioned how he would characterize his writing in an interview, Krasznahorkai responded: "Letters; then from letters, vocabulary; then from these words, some brief phrases; then additional phrases that are more extended, and in the main exceptionally extended sentences, for the span of decades. Beauty in prose. Fun in hell."

On audiences finding his books for the first time, he added: "If there are people who are new to my works, I couldn’t recommend any specific title to read to them; on the contrary, I’d advise them to go out, sit down somewhere, possibly by the edge of a stream, with no obligations, no thoughts, just staying in tranquility like rocks. They will in time encounter an individual who has already read my works."

Nobel Prize Context

Ahead of the reveal, betting agencies had ranked the top contenders for this year’s prize as an avant-garde author, an avant garde Chinese author, and the Hungarian.

The Nobel Prize in Literature has been presented on one hundred seventeen past events since 1901. Latest recipients have included the French author, Bob Dylan, the Tanzanian-born writer, the poet, Peter Handke and Tokarczuk. Last year’s winner was Han Kang, the Korean writer best known for The Vegetarian.

Krasznahorkai will formally receive the medal and diploma in a ceremony in December in Stockholm.

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