Hungary’s László Krasznahorkai wins Nobel Prize in literature for work confronting ‘apocalyptic terror’

(CNN) — The 2025 Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to László Krasznahorkai, a Hungarian writer who said his dark and difficult novels aim to examine reality “to the point of madness.”

Announcing the prize at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, on Thursday, the Nobel Committee praised Krasznahorkai “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.”

When only a handful of his works were translated into English, the literary critic James Wood wrote that Krasznahorkai’s books were once “passed around like rare currency.” That has since changed, and the Nobel Committee said the award recognized a body of work that has won widespread acclaim and “is characterized by absurdism and grotesque excess.”

Born in Gyula, Hungary, in