London: Hungarian author Lszló Krasznahorkai has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel ‘Herscht 07769’, acknowledged as a great contemporary German novel which accurately portrays contemporary Germany’s social unrest and its reflection on violence and beauty.
The coveted prize, awarded by the Swedish Academy, is worth 11 million crowns ($1.2 million).
The 71-year-old Krasznahorkai, born in the small town of Gyula, near Hungary’s border with Romania, is known for his long, complex sentences and philosophical depth.
His works have been compared to those of Franz Kafka and Thomas Bernhard, blending absurdism, grotesque imagery and spiritual introspection.
The Nobel Committee described Krasznahorkai as “a great epic writer in the Central European tradition” whose writing “extends through Kafka to Thomas Bernhard” and “is characterised by absurdism and grotesque excess.”
His Nobel-winning work ‘Herscht 07769’ depicts a small Thuringian town beset by social chaos, violence and arson.
The novel, set against the cultural legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach and written in Krasznahorkai’s characteristic uninterrupted prose, captures “violence and beauty impossibly conjoined,” the Nobel citation said.
The story is about some impoverished residents who await salvation from two mysterious men who are believed to have returned from the dead.
The novel was adapted into a landmark film by director Bla Tarr in 1994, which signalled the beginning of a long creative partnership between the two artists.
The Nobel Committee praised the author’s ability to guide readers “through a row of side doors to the inexplicable act of creation,” highlighting his rare combination of intellectual rigor and emotional resonance.
Krasznahorkai shot into global limelight with his 1985 debut work ‘Stntangó’ (Satantango), a bleak yet lyrical portrait of life in a collapsing Hungarian village.
His 2003 novel ‘A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East’, based near Kyoto, is a lyrical meditation on spiritual searching.
He followed that with ‘Seiobo There Below’ (2008), a collection of 17 interconnected stories arranged in a Fibonacci sequence, exploring artistic devotion and the pursuit of transcendence.
Krasznahorkai was awarded the Booker International Prize in 2015.
