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The world-renowned Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2025 has been awarded to Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, as revealed by the Nobel awarding body.

The Academy highlighted the 71-year-old's "gripping and imaginative oeuvre that, in the midst of cataclysmic dread, reaffirms the force of creative expression."

An Esteemed Career of Dystopian Fiction

Krasznahorkai is celebrated for his bleak, melancholic works, which have won several accolades, including the 2019 National Book Award for international writing and the prestigious Man Booker International Prize.

Many of his works, including his fictional works Satantango and another major work, have been adapted into cinematic works.

Debut Novel

Hailing in a Hungarian locale in the mid-1950s, Krasznahorkai first made his mark with his mid-80s first book his seminal novel, a grim and mesmerising representation of a collapsing countryside settlement.

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

A Distinctive Writing Approach

Commonly referred to as postmodern, Krasznahorkai is renowned for his long, winding sentences (the 12 chapters of the book each are a one paragraph), apocalyptic and pensive motifs, and the kind of relentless power that has led critics to compare him to Kafka, Melville, and Gogol.

This work was famously adapted into a seven-hour film by cinematic artist Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a enduring creative partnership.

"He is a remarkable epic writer in the Central European heritage that traces back to Franz Kafka to the Austrian writer, and is characterised by the absurd and grotesque excess," stated the Nobel chair, head of the Nobel committee.

He characterized Krasznahorkai’s prose as having "progressed to … smooth structure with long, winding phrases devoid of punctuation that has become his trademark."

Literary Praise

Sontag has called the author as "the modern Hungarian genius of end-times," while the writer W.G. Sebald praised the universality of his vision.

A handful of Krasznahorkai’s books have been rendered in English. The literary critic James Wood once noted that his books "circulate like precious items."

Global Influences

Krasznahorkai’s career has been molded by travel as much as by his writing. He first exited communist his homeland in 1987, residing a period in Berlin for a scholarship, and later was inspired from east Asia – notably Asian nations – for novels 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 home, noting the famous Beat poet's support as vital to completing the novel.

Author's Perspective

Asked how he would describe his oeuvre in an interview, Krasznahorkai said: "Letters; then from these characters, words; then from these terms, some short sentences; then additional phrases that are more extended, and in the primary extremely lengthy paragraphs, for the period of 35 years. Beauty in prose. Enjoyment in darkness."

On audiences discovering his work for the first time, he added: "For any readers who have not yet read my books, I would refrain from advising a particular book to explore to them; rather, I’d recommend them to go out, rest somewhere, perhaps by the banks of a creek, with nothing to do, a clear mind, just remaining in quiet like stones. They will eventually encounter someone who has encountered my books."

Nobel Prize Context

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

The Nobel Honor in Literary Arts has been presented on 117 past events since the early 20th century. Recent winners are Annie Ernaux, Dylan, Gurnah, the poet, Peter Handke and Olga Tokarczuk. The previous year's winner was the South Korean writer, the Korean author most famous for The Vegetarian.

Krasznahorkai will ceremonially be presented with the prize medal and document in a ceremony in December in the Swedish capital.

Updates to come