Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai wins 2025 Nobel Prize in literature

Guwahati: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, on Thursday, declared that the Nobel Prize in Literature would go to Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai.

The Academy feted him “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.”

Born in 1954 Krasznahorkai, he earned laurels in Hungary with his debut novel Sátántangó (1985), which later inspired the 2012 film Satantango.

His novel Herscht 07769 got acclaim as a significant contemporary German work, praised for its vivid depiction of social unrest in modern-day Thüringen.

Krasznahorkai’s other works are the 2003 novel Északról hegy, Délr?l tó, Nyugatról utak, Keletr?l folyó (translated in 2022 as A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East) and Seiobo járt odalent (2008; Seiobo There Below, 2013).

The collection arranges 17 stories according to the Fibonacci sequence and explores how beauty and artistic creation persist in a world marked by impermanence and blindness.

In Herscht 07769, Krasznahorkai portrays a realistic small town in Germany’s Carpathian region, grappling with social chaos, murder, and arson.

The novel’s tension unfolds alongside the powerful legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach, blending violence and beauty in an intense narrative written in a single breath.

The Nobel Committee described this work as a profound exploration of these themes.

Last year, South Korean author Han Kang received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The 2025 Nobel Prize announcements began on October 6 with the award for Physiology or Medicine, followed by Physics on October 7, and Chemistry on October 8.

The Nobel Committee will announce the Peace Prize on October 10 and the Economic Sciences Prize on October 13.

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Meanwhile, each Nobel Prize awards recipients a cash prize of 11 million Swedish kronor (about Rs 1.03 crore) and formally presents the prize on December 10.

Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel established the Nobel Prize and specified in his will that his fortune should fund awards for those who “during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.”