A life in context
The person behind the prize
Krasznahorkai grew up in southeastern Hungary and published his first novel, Satantango, in 1985. His writing moves between local communities and much wider cultural worlds. Long, flowing sentences and encounters with art are characteristic of his work, which has also inspired collaborations with filmmaker Béla Tarr.
The contribution
His fiction follows people searching for meaning amid fear, disorder and possible collapse. Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance combine dark comedy with intense attention to how a community can lose its bearings.
The idea in plain language
Krasznahorkai writes about people caught in uncertainty, obsession and social disorder. His long sentences can pull a reader through a thought that keeps changing direction, refusing the comfort of a quick resolution.
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