Stockholm: Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai has won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature, recognised by the Swedish Academy for his visionary and compelling body of work that reaffirms the power of art amid apocalyptic turmoil.
Born in Gyula, Hungary, in 1954, Krasznahorkai is widely regarded as one of Europe’s most distinctive literary voices. He first rose to prominence with his 1985 debut novel Sátántangó, a bleak and mesmerising depiction of a decaying rural community that captured the despair and disillusionment of post-Communist life.
The novel, later translated into English, won the Best Translated Book Award in 2013 and was famously adapted into a seven-hour film by Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr, a long-time collaborator.
Krasznahorkai’s writing, often described as postmodern and philosophical, is characterised by long, unbroken sentences, dystopian landscapes, and a haunting sense of existential urgency. His prose has drawn comparisons to Gogol, Melville, and Kafka, writers who, like him, explored the boundaries of madness, faith, 9-and futility.
BREAKING NEWS
The 2025 #NobelPrize in Literature is awarded to the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.” pic.twitter.com/vVaW1zkWPS— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 9, 2025
After leaving Communist Hungary in 1987, he spent a year in West Berlin on a fellowship before embarking on extensive travels through East Asia, where he drew inspiration for novels such as The Prisoner of Urga and Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens.
While working on War and War, he spent a period in New York, living in the apartment of Allen Ginsberg, whose encouragement he later described as vital to completing the book.
Over the decades, Krasznahorkai has earned admiration from leading literary figures worldwide. In 2015, he became the first Hungarian writer to receive the Man Booker International Prize.
This year’s Nobel marks the 117th time the prize has been awarded since its establishment, recognising a total of 121 laureates. Last year’s winner was Han Kang of South Korea, honoured for a body of work that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.
The literature prize is the fourth Nobel award announced this week, following the 2025 prizes in medicine, physics, and chemistry. Each Nobel laureate receives 11 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), along with an 18-carat gold medal and a diploma, presented at a royal ceremony in Stockholm.
