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The prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature for this year has been bestowed upon the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, as declared by the Swedish Academy.

The Academy highlighted the seventy-one-year-old's "gripping and imaginative collection that, amidst end-times terror, reasserts the force of art."

An Esteemed Career of Dystopian Fiction

Krasznahorkai is celebrated for his bleak, pensive works, which have garnered several accolades, such as the recent National Book Award for translated literature and the prestigious Man Booker International Prize.

Many of his books, notably his titles his debut and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been turned into cinematic works.

Early Beginnings

Hailing in a Hungarian locale in 1954, Krasznahorkai first made his mark with his 1985 debut novel Satantango, a grim and captivating depiction of a collapsing village society.

The work would later win the Man Booker International Prize award in the English language decades after, in 2013.

A Unique Literary Style

Commonly referred to as postmodernist, Krasznahorkai is famous for his extended, meandering phrases (the twelve chapters of his novel each consist of a solitary block of text), apocalyptic and melancholic themes, and the kind of relentless power that has led literary experts to draw parallels with Kafka, Melville, and Gogol.

This work was famously made into a extended motion picture by director the director Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a lengthy working relationship.

"He is a remarkable writer of epic tales in the European literary tradition that extends through Franz Kafka to the Austrian writer, and is marked by absurdism and bizarre extremes," commented the committee chair, head of the Nobel panel.

He portrayed Krasznahorkai’s writing as having "developed towards … flowing syntax with extended, meandering lines devoid of punctuation that has become his trademark."

Literary Praise

Susan Sontag has referred to the author as "the contemporary Hungarian genius of apocalypse," while WG Sebald praised the wide appeal of his perspective.

Only a few of Krasznahorkai’s books have been published in English translation. The literary critic James Wood once noted that his books "are shared like rare currency."

International Inspiration

Krasznahorkai’s career has been molded by exploration as much as by literature. He first exited the communist his homeland in 1987, residing a year in Berlin for a fellowship, and later was inspired from Eastern Asia – notably Mongolia and China – for books such as The Prisoner of Urga, and his book on China.

While working on War and War, he journeyed extensively across Europe and resided temporarily in Allen Ginsberg’s New York residence, noting the renowned poet's backing as essential to finalizing the work.

Writer's Own Words

Inquired how he would describe his oeuvre in an interview, Krasznahorkai responded: "Characters; then from letters, words; then from these terms, some short sentences; then further lines that are more extended, and in the primary very long sentences, for the duration of 35 years. Elegance in language. Fun in despair."

On readers finding his books for the first time, he continued: "Should there be readers who are new to my books, I would not suggest anything to explore to them; rather, I’d recommend them to venture outside, settle somewhere, perhaps by the edge of a stream, with nothing to do, no thoughts, just staying in tranquility like rocks. They will in time meet an individual who has previously read my novels."

Nobel Prize Context

Prior to the declaration, oddsmakers had pegged the frontrunners for this year’s award as the Chinese writer, an experimental from China author, and Krasznahorkai.

The Nobel Award in Writing has been awarded on one hundred seventeen past events since the early 20th century. Latest recipients have included Annie Ernaux, Dylan, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Louise Glück, the Austrian and Tokarczuk. The previous year's honoree was the South Korean writer, the Korean novelist renowned for The Vegetarian.

Krasznahorkai will ceremonially accept the prize medal and diploma in a ceremony in the month of December in Stockholm, Sweden.

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