OSLO (Kashmir English): Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature.
The Swedish Academy said the award was given in recognition of his “influential and insightful literary work,” which “reaffirms the power of art in times of destruction and fear.”
The academy described Krasznahorkai as an outstanding representative of the great narrative tradition of Central Europe, which traces its roots to writers such as Kafka and Thomas Bernhard.
Krasznahorkai’s writings combine philosophical depth, satire, tragedy, and Eastern intellectual influences.
Born in the Hungarian town of Gyula in 1954, the author gained international fame with his 1985 novel “The Devil’s Dance,” which symbolically depicts the desolation of rural life before the fall of communism.
The novel was later adapted into a 7-hour film by Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr.
Krasznahorkai’s writings are deeply influenced by his travels to China and Japan, and many of his works have received international critical acclaim.
He is the second Hungarian writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first being Emre Kertész in 2002.
According to literary experts, the devastation, despair, and satire depicted in Krasznahorkai’s novels are deeply relevant to today’s world, especially the Russia-Ukraine war and the Palestine-Israel conflict, and for this reason his writings have extraordinary meaning even for new readers.
