October 10, 2025 | 06:56 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Hungarian novelist Laszlo Krasznahorkai has been named the winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy announced on Thursday, October 9.
The 71-year-old author was recognized “for his intriguing and visionary work, which, amid apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art,” according to the Nobel Prize committee’s official statement.
Born in the small town of Gyula in southeastern Hungary, Krasznahorkai’s literary voice was shaped by life under the communist regime and his extensive travels after moving abroad in 1987 to West Berlin for a scholarship.
His novels, short stories, and essays have earned acclaim both in Hungary, where he is often regarded as the country’s most important living writer, and in Germany, where he lived for many years.
Krasznahorkai once described his writing as “reality explored to the point of madness.” His distinctive style, marked by long, unbroken sentences and minimal paragraphing, has led critics to describe his prose as both obsessive and hypnotic.
Several of his major works, including his debut novel Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, were adapted into acclaimed films by Hungarian director Béla Tarr.
Winning the Nobel Prize, now valued at USD 1.2 million, places Krasznahorkai among the ranks of literary greats such as Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison, Kazuo Ishiguro, and last year’s laureate Han Kang.
Krasznahorkai’s Reaction: “This Prize Proves Literature Still Exists”
Krasznahorkai said he was surprised to receive the Nobel honor, revealing that he had been preparing to visit a sick friend in Frankfurt when the news arrived.
“I’m in a flat of a friend’s who is sick, and I visited him in Frankfurt am Main. I cannot believe that I’m a Nobel Prize winner, but I’m really happy,“ he said in a statement published on the Nobel Prize’s official website.
He expressed deep pride in joining the ranks of great writers and in continuing to write in his native tongue.
“I’m very happy and I’m very proud, because to be in the line which contains so many really great writers and poets gives me power to use my original language, the Hungarian language. I am really very proud and very happy to use this little language,”
Known for exploring humanity’s darker and more catastrophic impulses, Krasznahorkai expressed gratitude that his work continues to resonate with readers.
“I thank, first of all, the readers. I wish for everybody to get back the ability to use their fantasy, because without fantasy it’s an absolute different life,” he reflected.
The author said his greatest inspiration often comes from crime and the state of the world, which he views with deep sorrow.
“I am very sad if I think of the status of the world now. This is my deepest inspiration. This could be also an inspiration for the next generation or generations in literature,” Krasznahorkai said.
“Inspiration to give something for the next generation, somehow to survive this time because these are very, very dark times and we need much more power in us to survive this time than before.“
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