Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai, known for his dark and complex prose, has won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy praised him for his “epic vision and moral depth,” calling his writing a mirror of modern Central Europe.

Discovering a Family Secret

Krasznahorkai was born in 1954 in Gyula, a small Hungarian town near the Romanian border. At age 11, he discovered that his father’s family was Jewish. His grandfather had changed their name from Korin to Krasznahorkai in 1931 to avoid growing antisemitism.

That revelation shaped his understanding of identity. “With this name, he would never have survived,” the author later said. In his novel War and War, the main character, György Korin, carries that legacy of hidden memory and exile.

Writing in the Shadow of History

Krasznahorkai gained fame for Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, both later adapted into films by director Béla Tarr. His long, flowing sentences and apocalyptic tone earned comparisons to Kafka and Dostoyevsky.

Critic Susan Sontag once called him “a master of the apocalypse.” His books often explore moral collapse, survival, and faith amid tyranny, themes reflecting Hungary’s 20th-century upheavals.

In recent years, he has spoken out against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the rise of nationalism. “I am half Jewish,” he said in 2018, “but if things continue as they are, I’ll soon be entirely Jewish.”

A Voice for Memory and Resistance

The Nobel Committee described Krasznahorkai as “a voice of conscience” whose stories give dignity to those trapped in oppressive systems. His award places him among past Jewish laureates such as Saul Bellow, Imre Kertész, and Isaac Bashevis Singer — writers who transformed trauma and exile into enduring art.

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JTA – László Krasznahorkai, grim Hungarian author whose family hid Jewish roots, wins literature Nobel
Source: JTA, October 2025