Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai wins Nobel Literature 2025
He is described as a 'great epic writer in the Central European tradition that extends through Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is characterised by absurdism'
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai.
The prize was awarded “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art,” said a press release from the Nobel Foundation.
"Krasznahorkai is a great epic writer in the Central European tradition that extends through Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is characterised by absurdism and grotesque excess. But there are more strings to his bow, and he also looks to the East in adopting a more contemplative, finely calibrated tone," the release added.
About the author
Krasznahorkai was born in 1954 in the small town of Gyula in southeast Hungary, near the Romanian border. A similar remote rural area is the scene of Krasznahorkai’s first novel, Sátántangó, published in 1985, which was a literary sensation in Hungary and the author’s breakthrough work.
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"The novel portrays, in powerfully suggestive terms, a destitute group of residents on an abandoned collective farm in the Hungarian countryside just before the fall of communism. Silence and anticipation reign, until the charismatic Irimiás and his crony Petrina, who were believed by all to be dead, suddenly appear on the scene. To the waiting residents, they seem as messengers either of hope or of the last judgement," said Anders Olsson, Chair of the Nobel Committee.
"The satanic element referred to in the title of the book is present in their slave morality and in the pretences of the trickster Irimiás, which leaves almost all of them tied up in knots. Everyone in the novel is waiting for a miracle to happen, a hope that is from the very outset punctured by the book’s introductory Kafka motto: ‘In that case, I’ll miss the thing by waiting for it.’ The novel was made into a highly original 1994 film in collaboration with the director Béla Tarr," Olsson added.
Later works
Krasznahorkai's latest works include Zsömle odavan, published in 2024, and Herscht 07769 : Florian Herscht Bach-regénye : elbeszélés, published in 2021. Herscht has been translated to English by Ottilie Mulzet.