Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his "visionary" body of work. The novelist and screenwriter is known for incorporating dystopian and melancholic themes into his writing.
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| László Krasznahorkai has received the Nobel Prize in Literature. (Getty Images: Franco Origlia) |
Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, one of the world's most prestigious writing awards.
The announcement was made by the Swedish Academy's Nobel Committee on Thursday, local time.
The prize includes a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1.7 million).
"The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025 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," the academy said.
"László Krasznahorkai is a great epic writer in the Central European tradition that extends through Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is characterised by absurdism and grotesque excess.
"But there are more strings to his bow, and he also looks to the East in adopting a more contemplative, finely calibrated tone."
Krasznahorkai is a novelist and screenwriter and is known for incorporating dystopian and melancholic themes into his work.
Several of his novels, including Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been adapted into films.
Krasznahorkai was also awarded the Man Booker International Prize in 2015.
Past winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature include French poet and essayist Sully Prudhomme, who bagged the first award, American novelist and short story writer William Faulkner in 1949, Britain's World War II Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1953, Turkey's Orhan Pamuk in 2006, and Norway's Jon Fosse in 2023.
Last year's prize was given to South Korean author Han Kang, who became the 18th woman — the first was Swedish author Selma Lagerlof in 1909 — and the first South Korean to receive the award.
Over the years, the choices made by the Swedish Academy have drawn as much ire as applause.
In 2016, the award to American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan sparked criticism that his work was not proper literature, while Austrian Peter Handke's prize also drew criticism in 2019.
Handke had attended the funeral in 2006 of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, seen by many as responsible for the deaths of thousands of ethnic Albanians who were killed in Kosovo and the displacement of almost 1 million others during a brutal war waged by forces under his control in 1998-99.
Prizegivers have also in the past been accused of being snobbish, of having an anti-American bias, and of ignoring some of the giants of literature, including Russia's Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, France's Emile Zola, and Ireland's James Joyce.
The Nobel Prizes in Medicine, Physics and Chemistry were announced earlier this week.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the economics prize next Monday.
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