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The world-renowned Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025 has been awarded to Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, as announced by the committee.

The Academy commended the 71-year-old's "gripping and imaginative body of work that, amidst end-times fear, reaffirms the power of the arts."

An Esteemed Career of Bleak Narratives

Krasznahorkai is celebrated for his dark, melancholic books, which have won numerous awards, including the 2019 National Book Award for literature in translation and the prestigious Man Booker International Prize.

Several of his novels, notably his fictional works Satantango and another major work, have been made into cinematic works.

Debut Novel

Hailing in Gyula, Hungary in 1954, Krasznahorkai first made his mark with his 1985 first book Satantango, a bleak and hypnotic depiction of a failing countryside settlement.

The book would eventually secure the Man Booker International Prize recognition in English many years later, in the 2010s.

A Distinctive Prose Technique

Commonly referred to as postmodernist, Krasznahorkai is known for his extended, meandering sentences (the twelve chapters of his novel each are a single paragraph), apocalyptic and pensive motifs, and the kind of persistent intensity that has led literary experts to compare him to Kafka, Melville, and Gogol.

Satantango was famously transformed into a seven-hour movie by cinematic artist Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a enduring creative partnership.

"He is a remarkable author of grand narratives in the central European heritage that includes Franz Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is marked by the absurd and grotesque exaggeration," said Anders Olsson, head of the Nobel panel.

He portrayed Krasznahorkai’s writing as having "progressed to … continuous language with extended, meandering sentences devoid of periods that has become his hallmark."

Expert Opinions

Sontag has described the author as "today's from Hungary expert of apocalypse," while the writer W.G. Sebald applauded the universality of his vision.

Only a few of Krasznahorkai’s novels have been published in the English language. The critic James Wood once wrote that his books "are shared like valuable artifacts."

International Inspiration

Krasznahorkai’s professional journey has been influenced by journeys as much as by his writing. He first left communist the country in 1987, residing a twelve months in West Berlin for a grant, and later was inspired from Asia – notably Asian nations – for works such as The Prisoner of Urga, and his book on China.

While developing War and War, he travelled widely across European nations and resided temporarily in the legendary poet's New York apartment, noting the famous Beat poet's backing as crucial to completing the novel.

Author's Perspective

Questioned how he would characterize his work in an interview, Krasznahorkai answered: "Letters; then from these characters, vocabulary; then from these terms, some brief phrases; then additional phrases that are more extended, and in the main exceptionally extended sentences, for the period of 35 years. Elegance in language. Enjoyment in darkness."

On audiences discovering his work for the first time, he continued: "For any individuals who have not yet read my books, I would refrain from advising anything to peruse to them; on the contrary, I’d suggest them to venture outside, settle in a place, perhaps by the edge of a stream, with nothing to do, a clear mind, just remaining in silence like boulders. They will in time encounter someone who has previously read my books."

Award Background

Before the announcement, oddsmakers had listed the frontrunners for this year's award as Can Xue, an experimental Chinese author, and Krasznahorkai.

The Nobel Award in Literature has been awarded on over a hundred past events since the early 20th century. Recent recipients have included Ernaux, Bob Dylan, the Tanzanian-born writer, Glück, Peter Handke and Olga Tokarczuk. The previous year's honoree was Han Kang, the from South Korea novelist best known for The Vegetarian.

Krasznahorkai will officially receive the prize medal and certificate in a ceremony in December in Stockholm.

Updates to come