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The prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025 has been awarded to from Hungary author László Krasznahorkai, as announced by the Nobel awarding body.

The Committee commended the 71-year-old's "gripping and imaginative body of work that, amidst cataclysmic fear, reasserts the power of art."

An Esteemed Career of Dystopian Narratives

Krasznahorkai is celebrated for his dark, somber novels, which have earned numerous prizes, such as the 2019 National Book Award for international writing and the prestigious Man Booker International Prize.

Many of his books, among them his titles Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been made into feature films.

Initial Success

Originating in a Hungarian locale in 1954, Krasznahorkai first gained recognition with his 1985 initial work Satantango, a bleak and captivating portrayal of a failing countryside settlement.

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

An Unconventional Literary Style

Often described as postmodern, Krasznahorkai is renowned for his lengthy, intricate prose (the dozen sections of his novel each consist of a solitary block of text), apocalyptic and melancholic motifs, and the kind of unwavering power that has led reviewers to compare him to literary giants like Kafka.

The novel was widely adapted into a seven-hour movie by filmmaker Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a enduring creative partnership.

"Krasznahorkai is a great epic writer in the central European literary tradition that includes Kafka to the Austrian writer, and is marked by absurdist elements and grotesque exaggeration," said Anders Olsson, leader of the Nobel panel.

He portrayed Krasznahorkai’s prose as having "evolved into … flowing language with lengthy, intricate phrases without punctuation that has become his signature."

Expert Opinions

The critic Susan Sontag has described the author as "the contemporary from Hungary master of the apocalyptic," while Sebald commended the universality of his outlook.

A handful of Krasznahorkai’s novels have been published in English translation. The literary critic Wood once wrote that his books "get passed around like valuable artifacts."

Global Influences

Krasznahorkai’s career has been shaped by exploration as much as by his writing. He first left the communist the country in 1987, residing a twelve months in Berlin for a fellowship, and later was inspired from Asia – especially China and Mongolia – for works such as one of his titles, and his book on China.

While working on War and War, he explored across European nations and lived for a time in Ginsberg's New York residence, stating the famous writer's assistance as essential to completing the novel.

Krasznahorkai on His Work

Asked how he would explain his work in an interview, Krasznahorkai responded: "Letters; then from these characters, vocabulary; then from these terms, some short sentences; then additional phrases that are lengthier, and in the primary extremely lengthy sentences, for the span of three and a half decades. Elegance in prose. Enjoyment in darkness."

On audiences encountering his writing for the first time, he continued: "If there are individuals who are new to my novels, I couldn’t recommend any specific title to read to them; rather, I’d recommend them to go out, settle at a location, perhaps by the banks of a creek, with no obligations, no thoughts, just staying in tranquility like stones. They will in time meet someone who has encountered my works."

Nobel Prize Context

Prior to the declaration, bookmakers had listed the frontrunners for this year’s award as the Chinese writer, an avant garde Chinese writer, and Krasznahorkai.

The Nobel Honor in Literature has been presented on 117 previous occasions since 1901. Current winners have included Annie Ernaux, the musician, the Tanzanian-born writer, Louise Glück, the Austrian and Olga Tokarczuk. The most recent recipient was Han Kang, the Korean novelist renowned for The Vegetarian.

Krasznahorkai will ceremonially accept the medal and diploma in a event in December in Stockholm, Sweden.

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