Stockholm: Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai 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,” the Swedish Academy announced on Thursday.
Krasznahorkai’s acclaimed novel Herscht 07769 has been described as a great contemporary German work for its striking depiction of social unrest and chaos. Set in the German town of Thuringen, the novel intertwines themes of violence, anarchy, and beauty against the backdrop of Johann Sebastian Bach’s enduring musical legacy. The Academy hailed it as a story written “in a single breath,” merging the terrifying and the sublime.
Born in 1954 in Gyula, a small town in southeastern Hungary near the Romanian border, Krasznahorkai gained prominence with his debut novel Satantango (1985), which became a literary sensation and established his reputation as a master storyteller.
The Swedish Academy praised him as a “great epic writer in the Central European tradition,” linking his work to figures like Kafka and Thomas Bernhard, known for their absurdist and grotesque styles. His fascination with Asia, particularly Mongolia and China, has also inspired several works, including The Prisoner of Urga, Destruction, and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens.
Celebrated essayist Susan Sontag once described Krasznahorkai as “a contemporary master of the apocalypse,” noting how his novels, often set in bleak Central European villages, portray humanity’s search for meaning in a godless world.
The Nobel Prize in Literature, considered one of the world’s highest literary honors, has been awarded 117 times to 121 laureates since 1901, with works spanning over 20 languages. Past winners include Rabindranath Tagore (1913), honored for his “profoundly sensitive and beautiful verse,” Albert Camus (1957), who explored existentialism and morality, and Toni Morrison (1993), the first African American woman to receive the award.
