László Krasznahorkai 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature winner… why his work matters now and what might writers learn from him …
On 9 October 2025, Hungarian László Krasznahorkai was awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.” I want to use this moment to celebrate Krasznahorkai and to reflect on why his work matters, and what writers might learn from him. Krasznahorkai was born in Gyula, Hungary, in 1954. He studied law and Hungarian literature before working in publishing before becoming a full-time writer. Over decades, he published a relatively small body of novels, essays, and shorter works and built his reputation gradually, in part through translators in collaboration with cinema directors. He has already won major international literary prizes, such as the Man Booker International Prize (2015), the US National Book Award for Translated Literature (2019) for Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming, multiple best translated book awards, and recently the Formentor Prize in 2024 for his full body of work. Krasznahorkai is not a prolific novelist in the sense of quantity. A few of his better-known works include Satantango (1985), noted for each chapter comprising a single long paragraph and the book’s adaptation into a seven-hour film by Béla Tarr; The Melancholy of Resistance (1989); War and War (1999); and Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming (2016). These works are not easy reads. They demand patience. He uses long, sentences with minimal full stops, preferring an “ongoing motion in language.” He writes of bleakness but he is not nihilistic. Many of his works include decay, failure, collapse, or existential catastrophe. Great literature is not bounded by place. His work is geographically and thematically expansive, extending to remote regions, while also being personally close, exploring the inner spirit. Some of his later works show influences of Buddhist or Eastern thought. The Nobel committee described him as a “great epic writer in the Central European tradition that extends through Kafka to Thomas Bernhard” and one “characterized by absurdism and grotesque excess” while also “looking to the East in adopting a more contemplative, finely calibrated tone.” Krasznahorkai’s reaffirmation of the power of art gained the Nobel committee’s praise. One reason that I like his work is that he insists art still matters in the world, and that beauty is a “necessary act of resistance.” Writers can learn from his style. Krasznahorkai is not afraid to push against conventionality of form and the comfort of his readers. He not only assumes that his readers have patience; he also assumes their intelligence. He doesn’t always tidy up loose ends to finish all the threads within his work; he embraces ambiguity and is not concerned that his readers don’t always know “what happens next” in a linear way. The choice of Krasznahorkai as this year’s Nobel laureate is a recognition of what literature can still do in our time of uncertainty with uncompromising voice. It is a recognition of his literary persistence and patience as examples for grappling with a complex world. Additional reading: A Mountain to the North, A Lake to the South, Paths to the West, A River to the East by Laszlo Krasznahorkai: book review 27 May 2023 by Martina Nicolls
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