Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Nobel Committee announced yesterday. The committee awarded Krasznahorkai (71 years old) “for his astonishing and visionary work that reaffirms the power of art amid a terror close to the end of the world.”

The committee’s statement described Krasznahorkai as “a great epic writer belonging to the Central European tradition extending from Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, characterized by absurdity and comic exaggeration.”

It added: “But there is more than one facet to his work, as he also looks to the East, adopting a more contemplative and delicate tone in his expressions.”

The writer himself described his demanding and difficult style as reflecting “an obsession with contemplating reality to the point of madness,” and he is known for his tendency to write long sentences and rarely-ending paragraphs.

Born on January 5, 1954, in Gyula, southeastern Hungary, his books attract many readers worldwide, especially in Germany, where he lived for years, and in Hungary, where he is considered one of the greatest living writers of the country.