The award is presented by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm.
Hungarian László Krasznahorkai will receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2025.
“For his visionary and powerful writing which, amidst the horror of fate, maintains faith in the possibilities of art,” reads the Swedish Academy’s motivation.
The 71-year-old laureate has established himself over the years, with more than 15 novels, as one of Hungary’s foremost writers, known for both his dark side and his humor.
Acclaimed debut novel turned into a film
Krasznahorkai’s first novel, Sátántangó (Satantango, 2015), was published in 1985 and became his breakthrough hit. The novel portrays a group of oppressed people on an abandoned collective farm in the Hungarian countryside just before the fall of communism.
The novel was made into a 7.5-hour drama film in 1994.
American critic Susan Sontag has called Krasznahorkai the “master of the apocalypse” of contemporary literature. Sontag gave him this title after reading his second book, Az állásztán melankóliája (1989; The Melancholy of Resistance, 2014).
According to Marit Lindqvist, literary editor of the Swedish magazine Yle, Krasznahorkai’s writing is characterized by pessimism.
In his texts, one senses a profound hopelessness rooted in evil, stupidity, betrayal, and malice. He represents vulnerability and powerlessness under the tyranny of totalitarianism. There’s no openness, no light, but sometimes a subtle dark humor emerges, says Lindqvist.
She sees clear influences from both Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett.
The Swedish Academy’s choice didn’t surprise Lindqvist.
“It fully coincides with the Academy’s thinking over the past twenty years. It represents a broad European literary community that portrays painful moments in the history of Hungary and Europe during and after World War II; it portrays abuses of power and vulnerability, the vulnerability of humanity in a social machine that destroys you both mentally and physically.”
Five works translated into Swedish
The Melancholy of Resistance (2014)
Satan Tango (2015)
Seiobo Down There (2017)
The Last Wolf (2020)
Herscht 07769: Florian Herscht’s Bach Novel (2023)
