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The coveted Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2025 has been granted to the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, as announced by the committee.

The Jury highlighted the seventy-one-year-old's "gripping and imaginative collection that, within end-times dread, confirms the force of the arts."

A Renowned Path of Bleak Writing

Krasznahorkai is known for his dark, somber works, which have garnered several accolades, for instance the recent National Book Award for international writing and the prestigious Man Booker International Prize.

A number of of his novels, among them his titles Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been turned into movies.

Debut Novel

Originating in the Hungarian town of Gyula in the mid-1950s, Krasznahorkai first made his mark with his mid-80s first book Satantango, a dark and hypnotic portrayal of a disintegrating rural community.

The novel would later secure the Man Booker International Prize recognition in the English language many years later, in 2013.

A Distinctive Literary Style

Often described as avant-garde, Krasznahorkai is renowned for his lengthy, intricate sentences (the dozen sections of his novel each consist of a single paragraph), bleak and pensive themes, and the kind of unwavering force that has led literary experts to draw parallels with literary giants like Kafka.

This work was widely adapted into a lengthy motion picture by cinematic artist Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a long creative partnership.

"He is a remarkable epic writer in the central European literary tradition that extends through Kafka to the Austrian writer, and is marked by the absurd and grotesque exaggeration," stated the Nobel chair, head of the Nobel panel.

He characterized Krasznahorkai’s writing as having "evolved into … flowing language with lengthy, intricate phrases without punctuation that has become his hallmark."

Critical Acclaim

Susan Sontag has called the author as "the contemporary from Hungary genius of apocalypse," while Sebald praised the wide appeal of his outlook.

Only a few of Krasznahorkai’s novels have been published in the English language. The reviewer Wood once wrote that his books "get passed around like precious items."

Global Influences

Krasznahorkai’s professional journey has been influenced by journeys as much as by language. He first departed from socialist his homeland in 1987, residing a twelve months in West Berlin for a scholarship, and later was inspired from Eastern Asia – notably Asian nations – for works such as one of his titles, and his book on China.

While working on War and War, he explored across European nations and lived for a time in the legendary poet's New York residence, stating the renowned writer's support as essential to finishing the book.

Krasznahorkai on His Work

Questioned how he would explain his writing in an interview, Krasznahorkai answered: "Characters; then from letters, vocabulary; then from these terms, some short sentences; then more sentences that are more extended, and in the chief exceptionally extended sentences, for the duration of 35 years. Elegance in prose. Enjoyment in despair."

On audiences discovering his work for the initial encounter, he noted: "For any people who have not yet read my works, I would not suggest anything to peruse to them; on the contrary, I’d recommend them to go out, sit down somewhere, perhaps by the banks of a creek, with no obligations, nothing to think about, just being in silence like stones. They will in time meet an individual who has encountered my novels."

Award Background

Before the announcement, oddsmakers had ranked the frontrunners for this year's award as an avant-garde author, an avant garde Chinese novelist, and the Hungarian.

The Nobel Award in Writing has been given on one hundred seventeen prior instances since 1901. Recent recipients have included Annie Ernaux, the musician, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Glück, the Austrian and Olga Tokarczuk. The most recent winner was Han Kang, the from South Korea writer most famous for The Vegetarian.

Krasznahorkai will ceremonially accept the medal and document in a event in the month of December in the Swedish capital.

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