Stockholm, October 9, 2025 — The Swedish Academy has awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature to Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai, honoring his “compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art”.
Born in 1954 in the southeastern Hungarian town of Gyula, near the Romanian border, Krasznahorkai has long been celebrated for his haunting literary landscapes and philosophical depth.
His breakthrough novel, Sátántangó (1985), set in a desolate collective farm on the brink of communism’s collapse, introduced readers to a world of eerie silence and existential dread. The arrival of two enigmatic figures—Irimiás and Petrina—sparks a desperate hope among the residents, only to unravel into deception and despair.
The novel’s chilling tone is underscored by its Kafkaesque epigraph: “In that case, I’ll miss the thing by waiting for it.” The book was later adapted into a critically acclaimed film by director Béla Tarr in 1994.
A Master of Apocalyptic Vision
Krasznahorkai’s reputation as a literary visionary was cemented with his second novel, The Melancholy of Resistance (1989), a feverish tale set in a Carpathian valley town gripped by chaos. The arrival of a ghostly circus bearing the carcass of a giant whale triggers a wave of violence and societal collapse.
Through grotesque characters and surreal imagery, the novel explores the fragile boundary between order and anarchy. American critic Susan Sontag famously dubbed Krasznahorkai the “master of the apocalypse” for his ability to evoke terror with poetic precision.
Expanding Horizons
In War & War (1999), Krasznahorkai shifts his narrative beyond Hungary, following a humble archivist named Korin on a quest from Budapest to New York. Driven by the discovery of an ancient epic, Korin seeks to share its beauty with the world.
The novel marks a stylistic evolution in Krasznahorkai’s writing, characterized by long, flowing sentences that defy conventional punctuation—a hallmark of his prose.
With this Nobel recognition, Krasznahorkai joins the ranks of literary giants such as Toni Morrison, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Ernest Hemingway.
The award includes 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately $1.2 million), an 18-carat gold medal, and a diploma, to be presented at the official ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
