The winner of 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature is László Krasznahorkai, “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art”. The Prize was announced on October 9, 2025 by the Nobel Committee.

Krasznahorkai is the author of nine novels, numerous novellas, short story collections, essays and screenplays. His books explore dystopian and melancholic themes. The Nobel committee described Krasznahorkai as “a great epic writer in the Central European tradition that extends through Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is characterised by absurdism and grotesque excess.”

His acclaimed debut novel Sátántangó, published in 1985 (translated to English as Satantango in 2012), was a literary sensation in Hungary and the author’s breakthrough work that established him as a leading figure in Hungarian literature.

Some of his other well-known works are Az ellenállás melankóliája (The Melancholy of Resistance), Háború és háború (War & War), Báró Wenckheim hazatér (Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming), Seiobo járt odalent (Seiobo There Below) and Herscht 07769: Florian Herscht Bach- regénye (Herscht 07769: A Novel). His books have been translated to several languages.

Born in Gyula, eastern Hungary, and hailed as contemporary literature’s ‘master of the apocalypse’ by the American critic Susan Sontag, Krasznahorkai is the second Hungarian author to win the Nobel Prize, after Imre Kertesz in 2002.

Established in 1901, the Nobel Prize honours those who have conferred the “greatest benefit to humankind,” according to the will of Alfred Nobel, inventor, entrepreneur and businessman. Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace, while a memorial prize in economic sciences was added in 1968.

The Nobel Committee invites nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature from qualified individuals and organisations, and selects five candidates to be considered by the Swedish Academy, Stockholm. The members of the Academy read and assess the work of these final candidates, and choose the Nobel laureate in Literature. The names of the nominees are not disclosed for 50 years, as per the statutes of the Nobel Foundation.

Read interesting facts and figures about the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Nobel Prize will be awarded at a ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December, 2025. The Nobel laureates will receive the Nobel Prize medal and diploma, and a document confirming the prize amount.

About Author :

Jeena R. Papaadi is the author of six books in English including novels, short stories and poetry. Her writings have appeared or are forthcoming in several distinguished publications including The Hindu, Borderless Journal, Usawa Literary Review, The Wise Owl, Kitaab and Aksharasthree. Jeena is based in Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram.