Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai will receive the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy announced this during a press conference at the Stockholm Stock Exchange on Thursday.
“For his visionary and powerful writing which, amid the horror of fate, maintains faith in the possibilities of art,” reads the Swedish Academy’s motivation.
Over the years and with more than 15 novels, the 71-year-old has established himself as one of Hungary’s foremost writers, known for both his dark side and his humor.
In an interview with The Guardian, Krasznahorkai stated that his inspiration to become a writer came from an encounter he had as a young man with a traveler who was castrating piglets. The man’s coldness toward his profession influenced Krasznahorkai so much that he set out to capture the sentiment it conveyed in writing.
Acclaimed Debut Novel
The result was his debut novel, “Stantango” (in Swedish, 2015), which caused a slight stir in his home country in the 1980s. It is an experimental novel that plays with chronology and narrative perspective.
“Even in his debut, Krasznahorkai’s dark vision of life merges with an extraordinary linguistic vitality,” said Academy member Steve Sem-Sandberg about the novel during the press conference.
Internationally Acclaimed
Krasznahorkai is associated with dystopian and apocalyptic themes, but also with a special kind of humor amidst the darkness.
He is internationally recognized as one of the most prominent Hungarian writers of all time and previously received the Man Booker International Prize in 2015.
Several of his novels have also been adapted for film by Hungarian director Béla Tarr.
SVT broadcasts live from the Stockholm Stock Exchange, and literary critics Ulrika Milles and Ingrid Elam, as well as author Agri Ismaïl, are in the studio. The program is hosted by Kristofer Lundström.
Previous Laureates
2024 Han Kang, South Korea: “For her intense poetic prose, which confronts the traumas of history and exposes human vulnerability.”
2023 Jon Fosse, Norway: “For her groundbreaking drama and prose that give voice to the unspeakable.”
2022 Annie Ernaux, France: “For the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, alienation, and collective frameworks of personal memory.”
2021 Abdulrazak Gurnah, Tanzania/Great Britain: “For having shed light, with great compassion and without compromise, on the effects of colonialism and the fate of refugees in the gap between cultures and continents.”
2020 Louise Glück, USA: “For her unmistakable poetic voice, which with austere beauty universalizes the existence of the individual human being.”
