The Swedish Academy, organisers the Nobel Prize in Literature, on Thursday, awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature to the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai.
The Nobel Prize in Literature is regarded as the capstone to a writer’s career in the literary world.
The academy stated that the 71-year-old author merited the prize “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.”
Steve Sem-Sandberg, a member of the committee that awarded the prize, at a news conference, stated that Krasznahorkai’s style is powerful and musical, and free of illusion, adding that his work sees through the fragility of the social order.
Reacting to the news, Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, congratulated Krasznahorkai on X, adding that the win “brings pride to our nation.”
According to CNN, the prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor, which is around $1 million.
Krasznahorkai was born in Communist Hungary in 1954. His father was a lawyer, and his mother worked in the social welfare ministry. He studied Hungarian literature in Budapest.
He’s literary breakthrough came with his 1985 debut novel, ‘Satantango’. His other notable works include ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’, ‘Herscht 07769’, among others.
In 2015, he won the Man Booker International Prize, which at the time was awarded for an author’s entire body of work rather than a specific novel.
Laszlo Krasznahorkai is the second Hungarian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature after Imre Kertész in 2002.
