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

The Academy praised the seventy-one-year-old's "compelling and visionary collection that, in the midst of cataclysmic terror, confirms the strength of the arts."

A Legacy of Dystopian Writing

Krasznahorkai is celebrated for his bleak, melancholic novels, which have earned many awards, for instance the recent National Book Award for translated literature and the prestigious Man Booker International Prize.

Many of his works, notably his fictional works Satantango and another major work, have been turned into feature films.

Debut Novel

Originating in a Hungarian locale in 1954, Krasznahorkai first made his mark with his 1985 initial work Satantango, a grim and captivating representation of a failing village society.

The novel would later earn the Man Booker International Prize award in English nearly three decades later, in 2013.

An Unconventional Literary Style

Commonly referred to as avant-garde, Krasznahorkai is famous for his extended, meandering sentences (the dozen sections of the book each are a one paragraph), dystopian and somber themes, and the kind of persistent force that has led literary experts to compare him to Gogol, Melville and Kafka.

Satantango was widely transformed into a seven-hour film by filmmaker Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a lengthy artistic collaboration.

"He is a great writer of epic tales in the Central European literary tradition that traces back to Kafka to Bernhard, and is defined by absurdist elements and grotesque excess," said the committee chair, leader of the Nobel committee.

He described Krasznahorkai’s writing as having "evolved into … flowing structure with long, winding lines without periods that has become his hallmark."

Critical Acclaim

Sontag has described the author as "the modern Hungarian master of apocalypse," while Sebald praised the universality of his outlook.

A handful of Krasznahorkai’s novels have been translated into the English language. The critic James Wood once noted that his books "get passed around like rare currency."

Global Influences

Krasznahorkai’s career has been molded by travel as much as by his writing. He first departed from communist Hungary in 1987, spending a period in the city for a fellowship, and later drew inspiration from Eastern Asia – particularly China and Mongolia – for books such as The Prisoner of Urga, and his book on China.

While writing War and War, he travelled widely across Europe and resided temporarily in Ginsberg's New York residence, stating the famous writer's assistance as vital to finishing the book.

Writer's Own Words

Asked how he would describe his writing in an discussion, Krasznahorkai answered: "Characters; then from letters, vocabulary; then from these words, some brief phrases; then further lines that are longer, and in the primary exceptionally extended phrases, for the duration of 35 years. Elegance in writing. Fun in hell."

On audiences discovering his writing for the initial encounter, he continued: "If there are people who are new to my novels, I would refrain from advising anything to read to them; rather, I’d suggest them to step out, settle somewhere, possibly by the banks of a creek, with nothing to do, no thoughts, just being in quiet like boulders. They will in time come across someone who has already read my books."

Nobel Prize Context

Before the announcement, bookmakers had pegged the top contenders for this year's prize as an avant-garde author, an experimental from China writer, and Krasznahorkai.

The Nobel Prize in Literature has been given on over a hundred prior instances since 1901. Latest recipients are the French author, the musician, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Glück, Handke and Tokarczuk. Last year’s winner was the South Korean writer, the from South Korea author most famous for The Vegetarian.

Krasznahorkai will officially be presented with the award and diploma in a event in winter in the Swedish capital.

Updates to come