Hungarian Novelist László Krasznahorkai Wins 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai for what the Swedish Academy described as his “compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.”

Krasznahorkai, celebrated for his dense and dystopian prose, has long been regarded as one of Europe’s most formidable literary voices. His works have earned several awards including the 2019 National Book Award for Translated Literature and the 2015 Man Booker International Prize.

Born in Gyula, Hungary, in 1954, Krasznahorkai gained recognition with his debut novel Satantango (1985) — a bleak, hypnotic portrayal of a decaying rural village.  The novel, famed for its intricate style and philosophical despair, went on to secure the Man Booker International Prize three decades later in 2015.

Renowned for his labyrinthine sentences and philosophical depth, Krasznahorkai often writes entire chapters as single paragraphs. The twelve chapters of Satantango, for instance, are 12 unbroken sections of text. Only a handful of his works have been translated into English, adding to their cult status among readers.

According to Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel committee, “Krasznahorkai is a great epic writer in the Central European tradition that runs from Kafka to Thomas Bernhard — marked by absurdism and grotesque excess.”

The Guardian once quoted Susan Sontag describing him as “the contemporary Hungarian master of apocalypse,” while critic James Wood observed that his books “get passed around like rare currency.”

Asked to describe his works in a 2015 Guardian interview, Krasznahorkai responded: “Letters; then from letters, words; then from these words, some short sentences; then more sentences that are longer, and in the main very long sentences, for the duration of 35 years. Beauty in language. Fun in hell.”

To those approaching his work for the first time, he said: “If there are readers who haven’t read my books, I couldn’t recommend anything to read to them. Instead, I’d advise them to go out, sit down somewhere, perhaps by the side of a brook… They will eventually meet someone who has already read my books.”

Recent Nobel laureates for literature include Annie Ernaux, Bob Dylan, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Louise Glück, Peter Handke, and Olga Tokarczuk. Last year’s prize went to Han Kang, the South Korean author of The Vegetarian.