Berlin, 9 October 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Hungary's László Krasznahorkai has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art," the Swedish Academy said on Thursday.

"László 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.

"But there are more strings to his bow, and he also looks to the East in adopting a more contemplative, finely calibrated tone."

Novelist and screenwriter Krasznahorkai was born in 1954 in the small town of Gyula in south-eastern Hungary, near the Romanian border.

The Nobel Prize in Literature is worth 11 million Swedish kronor ($1.16 million).

South Korean author Han Kang won last year's prize. In 2023, the winner of one of literature's highest honours was Norwegian novelist and playwright Jon Fosse. In 2022, the French author Annie Ernaux won for her body of largely autobiographical work.

Photo: epa