What to read by Nobel Prize in Literature winner László Krasznahorkai

His “dystopian, melancholic novels” have earned lavish praise from the likes of Colm Tóibín, Susan Sontag and W.G. Sebald, said Emma Loffhagen in The Guardian . Now, László Krasznahorkai has scooped the biggest prize in literature. Announcing the 71-year-old Hungarian as the winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize, the Swedish Academy cited his “compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art”.

Krasznahorkai is “almost a parody of a Nobel winner”, said John Self in The Times . “His novels are dark and gloomy, favour atmosphere over plot, and are written in long sentences that make up even longer paragraphs.” But they’re certainly original. No one else could have written his novel “War and War”, about a suicidal man who travels to New Yor