Nobel Prize in Literature 2025 awarded to Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai

Stockholm: Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai, 71, has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art”. Known as the postmodern "master of the apocalypse," his dense, long-sentence prose explores dystopia, chaos, and beauty in decay.

His breakthrough novel Satantango (1985), set in a crumbling communist-era village, was called a “slow lava-flow of narrative” by translator George Szirtes. The book was adapted into a seven-hour film by Béla Tarr, as was his 1989 novel The Melancholy of Resistance, later filmed as Werckmeister Harmonies.

American critic Susan Sontag described Krasznahorkai as “the contemporary Hungarian master of apocalypse,” comparing him to Gogol and Melville. James Wood called his novel War and War “one of the most profoundly unsettling experiences I have ever had as a reader”.

Krasznahorkai, who previously won the 2015 Man Booker International Prize, said he hoped the Nobel would help him reach new readers in the English-speaking world. He credited Kafka, Jimi Hendrix, and Kyoto as major inspirations. When asked about his apocalyptic themes, he said: “Maybe I’m a writer who writes novels for readers who need the beauty in hell.”