László Krasznahorkai was awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature ”for his compelling and visionary work which, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art”. Born in 1954 in Gyula, in south-eastern Hungary, on the border with Romania, he is the author of novels and collections of short stories with which he has won every type of recognition, from the International Man Booker Prize in 2015 to the National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2019.
Nobel Prize for Literature 2025
Unlike what usually happens, this time the winner of the prestigious award, which will be awarded to him on 10 December, is a writer who has been listed among those eligible for consideration for years. In Italy his works are published by Bompiani starting from his debut novel Satanangowhich bore in its epigraph the Kafkaesque motto, “In that case, I will miss the thing waiting for it.”
And in his books he expresses precisely the creative yet desperate power of that Central European literature which extends from Kafka himself to Thomas Bernhard. And like these writers, Krasznahorkai tells everything in detail, facts and people, “examining reality to the limit of madness”, as he himself declared, to captivate readers with the tension of the progression of events and the thoughts of his characters. His next novel, Panino is no longer therewill be released in Italy in 2026.
His first day as a Nobel Prize winner for literature, Krasznahorkai said, “I spent in the apartment of a sick friend, I went to visit him in Frankfurt am Main. And I can’t believe I’m a Nobel Prize winner. But I’m really happy”. Despite being among the favourites, he said he was “absolutely surprised. Maybe tonight we’ll prepare a dinner with my friends here in Frankfurt. With Port wine and champagne”.
