STOCKHOLM , OCT 9 : Hungarian writer L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Krasznahorkai, whose philosophical, bleakly funny novels often unfold in single sentences, won the Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for his “compelling and visionay oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several works including his debut, \u201cSatantango\u201d and \u201cThe Melancholy of Resistance,\u201d were turned into films by Hungarian director B\u00e9la Tarr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Nobel judges praised his \u201cartistic gaze which is entirely free of illusion, and which sees through the fragility of the social order combined with his unwavering belief in the power of art,” Steve Sem-Sandberg of the Nobel committee said at the announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cL\u00e1szl\u00f3 Krasznahorkai is a great epic writer in the Central European tradition that extends through (Franz) Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is characterized by absurdism and grotesque excess,” the Nobel judges said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other books include \u201cThe Melancholy of Resistance,\u201d a surreal, disturbing tale set in a small Hungarian town, and \u201cBaron Wenckheim\u2019s Homecoming,\u201d the sprawling saga of a gambling-addicted aristocrat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has also written several books inspired by his travels to China and Japan, including \u201cA Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East,\u201d published in Hungarian in 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sem-Sandberg said that Krasznahorkai had been on the Nobel radar for some time, \u201cand he has been writing and creating one outstanding work after another.\u201d He called his literary output “almost half a century of pure excellence.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Krasznahorkai, 71, couldn’t immediately be reached for his reaction. He didn’t speak at the announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was born in the southeastern Hungarian city of Gyula, near the border with Romania. Throughout the 1970s, he studied law at universities in Szeged and Budapest before shifting his focus to literature. According to the biography section of his website, he has traveled widely throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas, and has lived in many different countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Krasznahorkai has been a vocal critic of autocratic Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n, especially his government’s lack of support for Ukraine after the Russian invasion. He said in an interview for the Yale Review this year: \u201cHow can a country be neutral when the Russians invade a neighboring country?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in a post on Facebook, Orb\u00e1n was quick to congratulate the writer, saying: \u201cThe pride of Hungary, the first Nobel Prize winner from Gyula, L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Krasznahorkai. Congratulations!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Krasznahorkai has received many awards, including the 2015 Man Booker International Prize. The Booker judges praised his \u201cextraordinary sentences, sentences of incredible length that go to incredible lengths, their tone switching from solemn to madcap to quizzical to desolate as they go their wayward way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also won the National Book Award for Translated Literature in the U.S. in 2019 for \u201cBaron Wenckheim\u2019s Homecoming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The American writer and critic Susan Sontag has described Krasznahorkai as the \u201ccontemporary master of the Apocalypse.\u201d He was also friends with American poet and writer Allen Ginsberg and would regularly stay in Ginsberg\u2019s apartment while visiting New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sem-Sandberg said that Krasznahorkai \u201chas an outstanding ability to make his world, his literary world, come true to you. I mean, you\u2019re placed in the middle of everything that happens around you, and that is a great merit. Few authors are able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He’s the first winner from Hungary since Imre Kertesz in 2002. He joins an illustrious list of laureates that includes Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison and Kazuo Ishiguro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The literature prize has been awarded by the Nobel committee of the Swedish Academy 117 times to a total of 121 winners. Last year’s prize was won by South Korean author Han Kang for her body of work that the committee said \u201cconfronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The literature prize is the fourth to be announced this week, following the 2025 Nobels in medicine, physics and chemistry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday. The final Nobel, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, will be announced on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nobel Prize award ceremonies are held on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel\u2019s death in 1896. Nobel was a wealthy Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite who founded the prizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each prize carries an award of 11 million Swedish kronor (nearly $1.2 million), and the winners also receive an 18-carat gold medal and a diploma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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