László Krasznahorkai Just Won the Nobel Prize – Here’s Why Everyone’s Talking

Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai poses for a photo in Salzburg on Jul 26, 2021.(AFP)

Stockholm - October 9, 2025 – The Swedish Academy has awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature to Hungarian novelist and screenwriter László Krasznahorkai, 71, "for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art." Announced by Permanent Secretary Mats Malm at the Karolinska Institutet, the prize recognizes Krasznahorkai's dystopian, melancholic narratives marked by absurdism, grotesque excess, and marathon sentences that blend bleak philosophy with deadpan humor.

Born in Gyula, Hungary, in 1954, Krasznahorkai burst onto the literary scene with his 1985 debut Satantango, a "literary sensation" depicting a decaying rural community's descent into chaos. Adapted into a landmark seven-hour black-and-white film by director Béla Tarr in 1994, it exemplifies Krasznahorkai's frequent collaborations with Tarr, including screenplays for Damnation (1988) and Werckmeister Harmonies (2000, re-released 2024). His 1989 novel The Melancholy of Resistance—recently adapted into an opera at Berlin's Staatsoper Unter den Linden in June 2024—further cements his status as a "master of the apocalypse," a moniker coined by Susan Sontag.

The Academy hailed Krasznahorkai as a "great epic writer in the Central European tradition," linking his work to Franz Kafka and Thomas Bernhard through its unflinching exploration of existential dread and societal collapse. Over two decades, he has authored more than 20 books, including Chinaman (2012) and his latest satirical novel Zsömle Odavan (2024), featuring a 91-year-old protagonist hiding a royal claim amid Hungary's absurdities. His prose, often unfolding in single, labyrinthine sentences, has been praised for weaving "anti-gravitational" humor into darkness, as noted by New Directions publisher Barbara Epler.

Krasznahorkai's accolades include the 2015 Man Booker International Prize for his body of work and the 2019 U.S. National Book Award for Translated Literature for Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming. A perennial Nobel contender—tied as a favorite with China's Can Xue this year—he becomes Hungary's second literature laureate, following Imre Kertész's 2002 win for Holocaust-themed works. The prize, worth 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.15 million), has been awarded 118 times since 1901, with only 18 women among recipients.

News of the win reached Krasznahorkai via phone while visiting Frankfurt, Germany. In a statement, he expressed profound gratitude: "I am deeply glad that I have received the Nobel prize – above all because this award proves that literature exists in itself, beyond various non-literary expectations, and that it is still being read." His novels, which probe reality "to the point of madness," have long circulated like "rare currency" among English readers before broader translations.

In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán—whom Krasznahorkai has publicly criticized—congratulated him on X, calling the win "pride to our nation" and noting his roots in Gyula. Literary figures echoed the sentiment; critic James Wood, who once championed his early works, and peers like Kazuo Ishiguro (2017 laureate) hailed the recognition of Central European voices.

Krasznahorkai will receive the award from King Carl XVI Gustaf at the Nobel banquet on December 10 in Stockholm, joining recent winners like South Korea's Han Kang (2024) for poetic confrontation of trauma and Norway's Jon Fosse (2023) for minimalist expressions of anxiety. As global tensions rise, his triumph underscores literature's enduring role in illuminating—and perhaps redeeming—the absurdities of our time.