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

The Academy praised the seventy-one-year-old's "powerful and prophetic collection that, amidst apocalyptic fear, reasserts the force of creative expression."

An Esteemed Career of Bleak Narratives

Krasznahorkai is celebrated for his dystopian, pensive works, which have won many awards, for instance the 2019 National Book Award for international writing and the prestigious Man Booker International Prize.

Many of his books, among them his fictional works his debut and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been adapted into cinematic works.

Early Beginnings

Hailing in Gyula, Hungary in 1954, Krasznahorkai first gained recognition with his 1985 initial work Satantango, a bleak and captivating depiction of a disintegrating rural community.

The novel would later secure the Man Booker International Prize recognition in English decades after, in 2013.

A Distinctive Prose Technique

Often described as avant-garde, Krasznahorkai is renowned for his long, winding sentences (the dozen sections of the book each consist of a solitary block of text), bleak and melancholic themes, and the kind of unwavering power that has led critics to draw parallels with literary giants like Kafka.

Satantango was famously adapted into a lengthy motion picture by director Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a lengthy artistic collaboration.

"He is a remarkable author of grand narratives in the European heritage that traces back to Kafka to Bernhard, and is marked by absurdism and grotesque exaggeration," stated Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel committee.

He portrayed Krasznahorkai’s prose as having "developed towards … flowing structure with long, winding sentences lacking periods that has become his trademark."

Critical Acclaim

Sontag has called the author as "today's Hungarian genius of apocalypse," while WG Sebald commended the broad relevance of his vision.

Just a small number of Krasznahorkai’s books have been rendered in the English language. The critic James Wood once remarked that his books "circulate like precious items."

International Inspiration

Krasznahorkai’s professional journey has been influenced by travel as much as by language. He first left the communist the country in 1987, spending a twelve months in Berlin for a fellowship, and later was inspired from east Asia – notably China and Mongolia – for books such as a specific work, and his book on China.

While writing this novel, he explored across European nations and lived for a time in Ginsberg's New York home, describing the famous writer's backing as crucial to finalizing the work.

Writer's Own Words

Inquired how he would describe his writing in an discussion, Krasznahorkai answered: "Characters; then from these characters, vocabulary; then from these terms, some brief phrases; then more sentences that are lengthier, and in the main very long sentences, for the duration of decades. Beauty in writing. Fun in despair."

On fans discovering his writing for the initial encounter, he continued: "Should there be people who haven’t read my novels, I couldn’t recommend any specific title to peruse to them; rather, I’d advise them to step out, sit down somewhere, maybe by the edge of a stream, with no obligations, nothing to think about, just staying in silence like stones. They will in time meet a person who has already read my novels."

Award Background

Ahead of the reveal, bookmakers had ranked the favourites for this year’s honor as Can Xue, an experimental from China novelist, and Krasznahorkai.

The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded on one hundred seventeen prior instances since the early 20th century. Latest winners have included the French author, the musician, Gurnah, Louise Glück, Peter Handke and the Polish author. Last year’s recipient was Han Kang, the from South Korea author renowned for her acclaimed novel.

Krasznahorkai will formally receive the award and certificate in a function in the month of December in the Swedish capital.

Additional details forthcoming