"The power to use my original language: the Hungarian language." László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel

October 12, 2025

One of the greatest living writers, the Hungarian László Krasznahorkai is the laureate of this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. To his visionary linguistic and imaginative force speak his numerous books, from Satantango (1985) and The Melancholy of Resistance (1989) to War and War (1999) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming (2016), and to his moving poetic continuation of Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji, A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East (2003) that centers on a character who is the grandson of Prince Genji and who dwells beyond time in a monastery in Kyoto, searching for a garden that he sees in his mind's eye. During the Nobel telephone interview, Krasznahorkai proudly spoke of the "power to use my original language, the Hungarian language. I am really very proud and very happy to use this little language. I thank, first of all, the readers. I wish for everybody to get back the ability to use their fantasy, because without fantasy it’s an absolute different life. To read books and to enjoy and to be rich, because the reading gives us more power to survive this very, very difficult time on Earth."

To listen to the full interview, go to: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2025/krasznahorkai/interview/