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The prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2025 has been bestowed upon from Hungary author László Krasznahorkai, as announced by the Swedish Academy.

The Jury highlighted the seventy-one-year-old's "compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of cataclysmic dread, confirms the power of creative expression."

A Legacy of Apocalyptic Narratives

Krasznahorkai is known for his bleak, somber books, which have earned numerous awards, for instance the recent National Book Award for literature in translation and the 2015 Man Booker International Prize.

A number of of his novels, among them his novels Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been turned into movies.

Early Beginnings

Born in the Hungarian town of Gyula in 1954, Krasznahorkai first made his mark with his mid-80s initial work his seminal novel, a dark and hypnotic portrayal of a collapsing rural community.

The work would go on to earn the Man Booker International Prize honor in translation many years later, in the 2010s.

An Unconventional Prose Technique

Frequently labeled as avant-garde, Krasznahorkai is known for his extended, meandering phrases (the 12 chapters of his novel each comprise a one paragraph), dystopian and pensive subjects, and the kind of unwavering force that has led literary experts to compare him to Gogol, Melville and Kafka.

The novel was famously adapted into a seven-hour motion picture by filmmaker Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a enduring artistic collaboration.

"Krasznahorkai is a great writer of epic tales in the European literary tradition that traces back to Franz Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is marked by the absurd and grotesque excess," stated the committee chair, head of the Nobel panel.

He portrayed Krasznahorkai’s writing as having "progressed to … smooth syntax with extended, meandering phrases lacking periods that has become his trademark."

Expert Opinions

The critic Susan Sontag has described the author as "the modern Hungarian master of end-times," while the writer W.G. Sebald praised the broad relevance of his outlook.

A handful of Krasznahorkai’s novels have been rendered in English. The literary critic James Wood once wrote that his books "are shared like precious items."

Worldwide Travels

Krasznahorkai’s literary path has been molded by exploration as much as by language. He first left socialist Hungary in 1987, staying a twelve months in West Berlin for a scholarship, and later was inspired from Asia – especially Asian nations – for novels such as one of his titles, and Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens.

While writing this novel, he explored across European nations and resided temporarily in Ginsberg's New York residence, noting the renowned Beat poet's assistance as essential to finishing the work.

Krasznahorkai on His Work

Asked how he would explain his writing in an interview, Krasznahorkai said: "Characters; then from these characters, words; then from these words, some short sentences; then more sentences that are longer, and in the chief extremely lengthy phrases, for the span of three and a half decades. Elegance in writing. Enjoyment in despair."

On audiences discovering his work for the first time, he added: "If there are people who are new to my novels, I would not suggest any specific title to explore to them; instead, I’d recommend them to go out, sit down somewhere, maybe by the edge of a stream, with no tasks, nothing to think about, just staying in silence like stones. They will sooner or later encounter an individual who has previously read my books."

Award Background

Ahead of the reveal, betting agencies had ranked the frontrunners for this year's award as an avant-garde author, an innovative Chinese novelist, and Krasznahorkai himself.

The Nobel Award in Literature has been given on 117 prior instances since 1901. Recent recipients are the French author, Dylan, the Tanzanian-born writer, Louise Glück, Peter Handke and the Polish author. Last year’s winner was Han Kang, the from South Korea novelist renowned for The Vegetarian.

Krasznahorkai will formally be presented with the prize medal and certificate in a function in December in Stockholm.

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