STOCKHOLM, Sweden ‒ Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature, the award-giving body said on Thursday.
The committee chose "Krasznahorkai for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art," said Mats Malm, Permanent Secretary at the Swedish Academy.
So far this week, two Americans and a Japanese scientist won the Nobel in Physiology or Medicine for their work on understanding how the immune system is controlled; three American scientists won the Physics prize for their work in quantum mechanics, the technology behind cell phones; and the Chemistry prize went for work in metal-organic frameworks. The Peace Prize will be awarded on Friday, Oct. 10.
The Literature prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy and is worth $1.2 million. Established in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel, the prizes for achievements in literature, science and peace have been awarded since 1901.
"Laszlo Krasznahorkai is a great epic writer in the Central European tradition that extends through Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is characterised by absurdism and grotesque excess," the Academy said in a statement. "But there are more strings to his bow, and he also looks to the East in adopting a more contemplative, finely calibrated tone."
