László Krasznahorkai wins 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature for his visionary, apocalyptic-themed literary works. Photos: X.
László Krasznahorkai, a Hungarian writer, has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Academy said that the author won the award “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.”
In 2015, he became the first Hungarian writer to win the Man Booker International Prize. He will be awarded a cash prize of Rs. 10 crore for winning the Nobel award.
Krasznahorkai was born in Gyula, Hungary, in 1954. He first gained recognition with his 1985 debut novel, Sátántangó. The novel is based on a collapsing rural community. Three decades later, in 2013, its English translation won the Best Translated Book Award.
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Krasznahorkai is described as a postmodern, apocalyptic writer. He is known for his long, winding sentences. His books are based on dystopian and melancholic themes. His writing has a flavour of an intense narrative style. Krasznahorkai’s writing is often compared to Gogol, Melville, and Kafka.
His first novel, Sátántangó, was adapted into a seven-hour film by director Béla Tarr.
In 1987, Krasznahorkai left Communist Hungary for a fellowship in West Berlin. Later, he drew his writing inspiration from East Asia, particularly Mongolia and China, for works including The Prisoner of Urga and Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens.
During the writing of War and War, he traveled extensively across Europe and lived for a time in Allen Ginsberg’s New York apartment.
Some of the most influential literary figures, like Susan Sontag, W.G. Sebald, have admired Krasznahorkai’s work. Sontag described him as “the contemporary Hungarian master of apocalypse,” while Sebald praised the universality of his vision.
In 2003, Krasznahorkai published Északról hegy, Délről tó, Nyugatról utak, Keletről folyó (A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West. In 2022, he published River to the East, which is a mysterious tale set southeast of Kyoto.
This book is seen as a precursor to his compilation 2008 Seiobo járt odalent (Seiobo There Below), which is a collection of seventeen stories arranged in a Fibonacci sequence.
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
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