The Hungarian master of the apocalypse receives the highest literary award
The Swedish Academy has awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2024 to the Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai, recognizing his compelling and visionary work which, even in the face of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the transformative power of art. At 71 years old, Krasznahorkai stands as the first Hungarian author to receive this distinction since Imre Kertész in 2002, thus joining the pantheon of the greatest literary creators in history.
The jury’s verdict underlines his status as a great contemporary epic writer, whose narrative production is characterized by a profound exploration of existential absurdism and grotesque excess. His literary technique, which frequently employs sentences of monumental length—sometimes constituting entire novels in a single sentence—creates an immersive and hypnotic reading experience. According to Hungarian literature expert Zsuzsanna Varga from the University of Glasgow, this stylistic particularity turns his work into the “Hotel California of literature”: once the reader crosses its thresholds, it is impossible for him to leave his narrative universe.
A poetics of hopelessness and resistance
Krasznahorkai’s narrative meticulously examines the absolute hopelessness of the human condition, although paradoxically it does so with biting humor that provokes uncomfortable hilarity in the reader. This duality between the somber and the comic establishes a direct dialogue with the European literary tradition of the absurd, with obvious echoes of Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett. The writer and critic Susan Sontag correctly classified him as the “contemporary master of the Apocalypse“, a title that encapsulates the essence of his literary project.
For neophytes in his work, specialists recommend starting the journey with “Satantango“, his debut work published in 1985. This foundational novel focuses on the last residents of a collective farm in decline during the decline of Hungarian communism, establishing the themes and literary tone that his later works would develop. Literary critics have pointed out that this initial work already contained the distinctive elements of his style: the exploration of communities on the brink of collapse, moral corruption, and prose that expands and contracts with a hypnotic rhythm.
His later production includes fundamental titles such as “Melancholy of Resistance“, a surreal and disturbing story involving a traveling circus and a stuffed whale as symbols of a decaying society, and “Baron Wenckheim Comes Home“, the extensive saga of a gambling aristocrat who returns to his homeland. More recently, “Herscht 07769” (2021), set in a German city fractured by social unrest, challenges narrative conventions by being composed as a series of letters to then-Chancellor Angela Merkel, using a single full stop throughout its 400 pages.
Cinematic symbiosis and international recognition
The visual power of Krasznahorka’s narrative has found its cinematic expression through the fruitful collaboration with Hungarian director Béla Tarr. Several of his capital works—including “Satantango” (with a film duration of more than seven hours) and “Melancholy of Resistance“—have been adapted to the big screen, creating a film corpus that complements and expands his literary universe. This symbiosis between literature and film has amplified the reach of his artistic vision, attracting a broader global audience.
International recognition is nothing new for Krasznahorkai. In 2015, he received the prestigious Man Booker International, where the jury praised his “extraordinary sentences, of incredible length that reach unprecedented extremes, whose tone moves from the solemn to the absurd, to the inquisitive, to the desolate as they trace their wandering path.” Later, in 2019, he won the National Book Award for Translated Literature in the United States for “Baron Wenckheim Comes Home“, consolidating his presence in the world literary canon.
Biographical background and political stance
Born in Gyula, a city in southeastern Hungary near the border with Romania, Krasznahorkai began studying law at the universities of Szeged and Budapest during the 1970s, later reorienting his professional career towards literature. According to Varga, the author developed a cult of followers among Hungarian youth during the decline of communism in the 1980s, when “authors were practically like pop stars.”
János Szego, his editor at the Budapest-based Magveto publishing house, has noted that the author’s works revolve around “life on the periphery” and manifest a substantial interest in “the techniques of power.” Szego states that “all the populist tendencies of our time can be found in his novels, from barbarism to the manipulation of the masses.”
Krasznahorkai has maintained a critical stance towards his country’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, particularly regarding the Hungarian government’s lack of support for Ukraine after the Russian invasion. In an interview with the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet earlier this year, the writer openly expressed his criticisms of both the organic political system and the nationalism predominant in Hungarian society. “There is no hope left in Hungary today and it is not just because of the Orbán regime,” he told the outlet. “The problem is not only political, but also social.”
Paradoxically, after learning of the Nobel ruling, Orbán quickly congratulated the writer through a post on Facebook, referring to him as “The pride of Hungary, the first winner of Gyula‘s Nobel Prize, László Krasznahorkai.”
Reflections of the author and context of the award
When consulted by Radio Sweden after receiving the news of the award – which carries a financial reward of more than 1 million dollars -, Krasznahorkai confessed: “I am calm and very nervous. This is the first day in my life in which I receive a Nobel Prize. I don’t know what will come in the future.” The author revealed that nothing in his career was meticulously planned, explaining that initially he only aspired to write a book without intending to become a professional writer.
“At first I wanted to write just one book. And I didn’t want to be a writer,” he confessed to Swedish radio, but when he reread his first novel he discovered imperfections that prompted him to continue. “I started writing another one because I wanted to correct ‘Satantango’,” he said, “and then I tried to write a new book to correct the first two… My life is a permanent correction.” This statement reveals the organic and constantly evolving nature of his creative process.
Steve Sem-Sandberg, a member of the Nobel committee, noted that Krasznahorkai had been on the prize’s radar for a considerable time, calling his literary output “nearly half a century of pure excellence.” The literature prize has been awarded by the Swedish Academy committee on 117 occasions to a total of 121 winners. The Hungarian author succeeds the South Korean author Han Kang (2022) and the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse (2023) in the honors list, whose work also includes a seven-book epic composed of a single sentence, establishing an interesting intertextual dialogue between both laureates.
The literary award represents the fourth Nobel Prize announced this week, after those for medicine, physics and chemistry. The official award ceremony will take place on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel‘s death in 1896. Each winner receives 11 million Swedish crowns (approximately 1.2 million dollars), an 18-karat gold medal and an accrediting diploma.
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