The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to 71-year-old Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, the Swedish Academy announced on Thursday in Stockholm.
He was given the prize for his "mesmerising and visionary oeuvre that, amid apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art."
Krasznahorkai is only the second Hungarian laureate, following Imre Kertész in 2002. He has been a long-time favourite to win the prize.
Last year, the literature prize went to South Korean author and poet Han Kang. Belgium’s only recipient of the award was Maurice Maeterlinck in 1911.
Krasznahorkai is renowned for his dystopian and melancholic novels, drawing influence from literary greats such as Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett.
He has received numerous accolades, including the prestigious International Booker Prize in 2015.
Several of his works, such as Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been adapted into films and translated into Dutch in 2012 and 2016, respectively.
As a recipient of the Nobel Prize, Krasznahorkai will receive approximately €1 million (11 million Swedish kronor), alongside a medal and a diploma.
The award ceremony will take place on 10 December, the death anniversary of the prize’s founder, Alfred Nobel.
The Nobel Prize in Literature is widely regarded as the most prestigious literary accolade in the world.
This year, a little over 200 candidates were in contention, though the identities of nominees are traditionally kept secret for fifty years by the Nobel institutions.
Krasznahorkai’s win continues a recent trend of alternating male and female laureates since 2017.
Han Kang followed Noor Jon Fosse and French writer Annie Ernaux, with previous winners including Tanzanian author Abdulrazak Gurnah and, in 2020, American poet Louise Glück, who passed away in 2023.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, with former US President Donald Trump asserting his claim to the honour.
This award, unlike others, is presented in Oslo, Norway, rather than Stockholm. The final Nobel announcement, the prize for economics, will follow on Monday.
