Companhia das Letras and Grupo Editorial Author László Krasznahorkai Awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature 2025 winner is László Krasznahorkai.
We congratulate Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, recipient of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature, and the latest among more than 80 Penguin Random House authors to receive this literary honor. The Swedish Academy recognized him “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.”
In Portugal, our sister publishing company Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial’s Cavalo De Ferro imprint will publish two of László Krasznahorkai works: Herscht 07769, to be released next week, and Guerra e Guerra (War & War).
In Brazil, Companhia das Letras has published Sátántangó (Satantango) and will release Báró Wenckheim hazatér (Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming) in early 2026. The publisher has also acquired Herscht 07769.
Luiz Schwarcz, editor and founder of Companhia das Letras, said, “A long-awaited and well-deserved award for an author who, like the greatest writers, pushes literature into new frontiers.”
As the Academy notes, “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. But there are more strings to his bow, and he also looks to the East in adopting a more contemplative, finely calibrated tone.”
László Krasznahorkai was born in Gyula, Hungary in 1954. Heralded as the “master of the apocalypse” by Susan Sontag, Krasznahorkai has received numerous accolades such as the 2019 National Book Award for Translated Literature, the 2015 Man Booker International Prize, and the 2013 Best Translated Book Award in Fiction for Sátántangó.
Below, watch Mats Malm, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, announce the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature in Stockholm, Sweden.