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Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai poses for a photo in Salzburg, Austria, on July 26, 2021, after receiving the European Literature Prize. / Source: AFP-Yonhap News

Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai, 71, has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy announced Thursday.

Mats Malm, the permanent secretary of the Academy, said in a statement that the prize goes to Krasznahorkai “for his compelling and pioneering body of work that reaffirms the power of art even amid apocalyptic dread.”

Born in Hungary in 1954, Krasznahorkai gained international acclaim with his 1985 debut novel Sátántangó, followed by “The Melancholy of Resistance” (1989) and “Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming” (2016).

Renowned for his long, meandering sentences and dense philosophical themes, he is often hailed as a master of the postmodern apocalypse. In 2015, he became the first Hungarian writer to win the Man Booker International Prize.

As this year’s laureate, Krasznahorkai will receive a medal and a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately 1.65 billion won) at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm on December 10.

Last year, South Korean novelist Han Kang became the first Korean to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, marking a historic milestone in Asian literature.