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The author László Krasznahorkai was born in 1954 in the small town of Gyula in southeast Hungary, near the Romanian border. A similar remote rural area is the scene of Krasznahorkai’s first novel Sátántangó, published in 1985 (Satantango, 2012), which was a literary sensation in Hungary and the author’s breakthrough work. The novel portrays, in powerfully suggestive terms, a destitute group of residents on an abandoned collective farm in the Hungarian countryside just before the fall of communism. Silence and anticipation reign, until the charismatic Irimiás and his crony Petrina, who were believed by all to be dead, suddenly appear on the scene. To the waiting residents, they seem as messengers either of hope or of the last judgement. The satanic element referred to in the title of the book is present in their slave morality and in the pretences of the trickster Irimiás which, effective as they are deceitful, leave almost all of them tied up in knots. Everyone in the novel is waiting for a miracle to happen, a hope that is from the very outset punctured by the book’s introductory Kafka motto: ‘In that case, I’ll miss the thing by waiting for it.’ The novel was made into a highly original 1994 film in collaboration with the director Béla Tarr.
The American critic Susan Sontag soon crowned Krasznahorkai contemporary literature’s ‘master of the apocalypse’, a judgement she arrived at after having read the author’s second book Az ellenállás melankóliája (1989; The Melancholy of Resistance, 1998). Here, in a feverish horror fantasy played out in a small Hungarian town nestled in a Carpathian valley, the drama has been heightened even further. From the very first page, we – together with the charmless Mrs Pflaum – find ourselves entering a dizzying state of emergency. Ominous signs abound. Crucial to the dramatic sequence of events is the arrival in the city of a ghostly circus, whose main attraction is the carcass of a giant whale. This mysterious and menacing spectacle sets extreme forces in motion, prompting the spread of both violence and vandalism. Meanwhile, the inability of the military to prevent anarchy creates the possibility of a dictatorial coup. Employing dreamlike scenes and grotesque characterisations, László Krasznahorkai masterfully portrays the brutal struggle between order and disorder. None may escape the effects of terror.
In the novel Háború és háború (1999; War & War, 2006) Krasznahorkai shifts his attention beyond the borders of his Hungarian homeland in allowing the humble archivist Korin to decide, as his life’s final act, to travel from the outskirts of Budapest to New York such that he might, for a moment, take his place at the centre of the world. Back home in the archives, he has found an exceptionally beautiful ancient epic about returning warriors that he hopes to make known to the world. Krasznahorkai’s prose has developed towards the flowing syntax with long, winding sentences devoid of full stops that has become his signature.
War & War, in its rolling picaresque, anticipates the great novel Báró Wenckheim hazatér (2016; Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming, 2019), although on this occasion the focus is on returning to the homeland, as Krasznahorkai plays lavishly with literary tradition. Here, Dostoyevsky’s idiot is reincarnated in the hopelessly infatuated baron with his gambling addiction. Now ruined, he is on his way home to Hungary having spent many years living in exile in Argentina. He hopes to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart, whom he is unable to forget. Unhappily, in the course of his journey, he places his life in the hands of the treacherous Dante, a rascal presented as a grimy version of Sancho Panza. The climax of the novel, which is in many ways its comic highlight, is the joyful reception laid on for the baron by the local community, which the melancholic protagonist seeks at any cost to avoid.
A fifth work can be added to these ‘apocalyptic’ epics: Herscht 07769: Florian Herscht Bach- regénye (2021; Herscht 07769: A Novel, 2024). Here, we find ourselves in not a feverish nightmare in the Carpathians but rather a credible portrayal of a contemporary small town in Thüringen, Germany, which is nevertheless also afflicted by social anarchy, murder and arson. At the same time, the terror of the novel plays out against the backdrop of Johann Sebastian Bach’s powerful legacy. It is a book, written in a single breath, about violence and beauty ‘impossibly’ conjoined.
Herscht 07769 has been described as a great contemporary German novel, on account of its accuracy in portraying the country’s social unrest. In equal measure, the main protagonist Herscht is the very archetype of a credulous, big-hearted child, a holy fool in the spirit of Dostoyevsky, who reacts strongly once he realises that he, like Voluska in The Melancholy of Resistance, has placed his trust in exactly those powers that lie behind the ravages in the town. With Krasznahorkai, there is always room for the unpredictable, as is fully demonstrated in the novel’s dénouement.
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 soon looks to the East in adopting a more contemplative, finely calibrated tone. The result is a string of works inspired by the deep-seated impressions left by his journeys to China and Japan. About the search for a secret garden, his 2003 novel Északról hegy, Délről tó, Nyugatról utak, Keletről folyó (A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East, 2022) is a mysterious tale with powerful lyrical sections that takes place southeast of Kyoto. The work has the sense of a prelude to the rich Seiobo járt odalent (2008; Seiobo There Below, 2013), a collection of seventeen stories arranged in a Fibonacci sequence about the role of beauty and artistic creation in a world of blindness and impermanence. Alongside his quintet of epics, it represents Krasznahorkai’s major work. Particularly unforgettable is its opening scene in which a snow-white heron stands motionless in the middle of the River Kamo in Kyoto, waiting for its victim in the whirlpools below. Invisible to the masses of people passing by, the bird becomes an elusive image of the particular situation of the artist.
The common thread running through the book is the Japanese myth concerning Seiobo, who according to legend protects the garden which, every three thousand years, produces fruit that grants immortality. In the book, the myth is about the creation of a work of art and, in a string of episodes, we follow the genesis of such a work in the most diverse of times and environments. Often the act of creation occurs after a lengthy period of preparation marked by tradition and practiced craftsmanship. Works may also come about as a result of delayed or confused circumstances, as in the story of the perilous transport of an unfinished painting by the renowned Renaissance artist Pietro Vannucci from Florence to Perugia, the city of the latter’s birth. While everyone believes that Perugino, as he is commonly known, has given up painting, it is in Perugia that a miracle takes place.
The artist himself is, as so often in Seiobo There Below, absent from these stories. Instead, we are presented with figures that stand slightly to one side of the work that is soon to come into being. These might include janitors, onlookers or devoted craftsmen, who rarely or indeed never comprehend the meaning of the work in which they participate. The book is a masterful portrayal, in the course of which the reader is led through a row of ‘side doors’ to the inexplicable act of creation.
Another captivating work that showcases László Krasznahorkai’s breadth and literary register is the shorter story Aprómunka egy palotáért: bejárás mások őrületébe (Spadework for a Palace: Entering the Madness of Others, 2020) published in 2018. This extremely entertaining and rather madcap tale takes place in a Manhattan haunted by the ghosts of the great Herman Melville, who once lived there, and his fanatic admirers. It is a book about not only the curse of imitation but also the blessing of resistance. It may or may not be melancholy.
Anders Olsson
Chair of the Nobel Committee
Bibliography – a selection
Works in Hungarian
Sátántangó. – Budapest : Magvető, 1985
Kegyelmi viszonyok : halálnovellák. – Budapest : Magvető, 1986
Az ellenállás melankóliája. – Budapest : Magvető, 1989
Az urgai fogoly. – Budapest : Magvető, 1992
A Théseus-általános : titkos akadémiai előadások. – Budapest : Széphalom, 1993
Kegyelmi viszonyok : halálnovellák. – Budapest : Magvető, 1997
Megjött Ézsaiás. – Budapest : Magvető, 1998
Háború és háború : regény. – Budapest : Magvető, 1999
Este hat, néhány szabad megnyitás : művészeti írások / fotó Haris László et al. – Budapest : Magvető, 2001
Északról hegy, Délről tó, Nyugatról utak, Keletről folyó. – Budapest : Magvető, 2003
Rombolás és bánat az Ég alatt. – Budapest : Magvető, 2004
Seiobo járt odalent. – Budapest : Magvető, 2008
Az utolsó farkas. – Budapest : Magvető, 2009
ÁllatVanBent / képek Max Neumann. – Budapest : Magvető, 2010
Nem kérdez, nem válaszol : huszonöt beszélgetés, ugyanarról. – Budapest : Magvető, 2012
Megy a világ. – Budapest : Magvető, 2013
Báró Wenckheim hazatér. – Budapest : Magvető, 2016
A Manhattan-terv / Ornan Rotem fényképeivel ; Ornan Rotem esszéjét fordította Todero Anna. – Budapest : Magvető, 2018
Aprómunka egy palotáért : bejárás mások őrületébe. – Budapest : Magvető, 2018
Mindig Homérosznak : jó szerencse, semmi más : Odisejeva Spilja / Max Neumann képeivel ; Miklós Szilveszter érhangjával. – Budapest : Magvető, 2019
Herscht 07769 : Florian Herscht Bach-regénye : elbeszélés. – Budapest : Magvető, 2021
Zsömle odavan. – Budapest : Magvető, 2024
Film
Damnation (Kárhozat) / directed by Béla Tarr ; screenplay by László Krasznahorkai and Béla Tarr, 1988
The Last Boat – City Life (Az utolsó hajó) / directed by Béla Tarr ; screenplay by László Krasznahorkai and Béla Tarr, 1990
Satantango (Sátántangó) / directed by Béla Tarr ; screenplay by László Krasznahorkai and Béla Tarr, 1994 [re-released 2020]
Werckmeister Harmonies (Werckmeister harmóniák) / directed by Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky (co-director, editor) ; screenplay by László Krasznahorkai and Béla Tarr, 2000 [re-released 2024]
The Man from London (A Londoni férfi) / directed by Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky ; screenplay by László Krasznahorkai and Béla Tarr, 2007. Based on a novel by Georges Simenon.
The Turin Horse (A Torinói ló) / directed by Béla Tarr ; screenplay by László Krasznahorkai and Béla Tarr, 2011
Opera
Melancholie des Widerstands : eine filmische Oper / Musik von Marc-André Balbavie, Text von Guillaume Métayer in Zusammenarbeit mit David Marton nach dem Roman von László Krasznahorkai. Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin 30 juni 2024
Works in English
The Melancholy of Resistance / translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes. – London : Quartet Books, 1998. – Translation of: Az ellenállás melankóliája
War & War / translated from the Hungarian by Georges Szirtes. – New York : New Directions, 2006. – Translation of: Háború és háború
Animalinside / pictures: Max Neumann ; translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet. Cahiers series, 14. – Paris : Center for Writers & Translators, the American University of Paris ; London : Sylph, 2010. – Translation of: ÁllatVanBent
Satantango / translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes. – New York : New Directions, 2012. – Translation of: Sátántangó
The Bill : For Palma Vecchio, at Venice / translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes. The art monographs, 2. – London : Sylph, 2013
Seiobo There Below / translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet. – New York : New Directions, 2013. – Translation of: Seiobo járt odalent
Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens : Reportage / translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet. – London : Seagull Books, 2016. – Translation of: Rombolás és bánat az Ég alatt
The Last Wolf and Herman / translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes and John Batki. – New York : New Directions, 2016. – Translation of: Az utolsó farkas
The Manhattan Project : A Literary Diary Presented as Twelve Chance Encounters or Coincidences / alongside a photographic essay by Ornan Rotem ; translated from the Hungarian by John Batki. – London : Sylph, 2017. – Translation of: A Manhattan-terv
The World Goes On / translated from the Hungarian by John Bátki, Ottilie Mulzet and George Szirtes. – New York : New Directions, 2017. – Translation of: Megy a világ
Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming / translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet. – New York: New Directions, 2019. – Translation of: Báró Wenckheim hazatér
Spadework for a Palace : Entering the Madness of Others / translated from the Hungarian by John Batki. – New York : New Directions, 2020. – Translation of: Aprómunka egy palotáért
Chasing Homer : Good Luck, and Nothing Else : Odysseus’s Cave / with art by Max Neumann ; with music by Szilveszter Miklós ; translated from the Hungarian by John Batki. – New York : New Directions, 2021. – Translation of: Mindig Homérosznak : jó szerencse, semmi más : Odisejeva Spilja
A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East / translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet. – New York : New Directions, 2022. – Translation of: Északról hegy, Délről tó, Nyugatról utak, Keletről folyó
Herscht 07769 : A Novel / translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet. – New York : New Directions, 2024. – Translation of: Herscht 07769 : Florian Herscht Bach-regénye
Works in French
Tango de Satan : roman / traduit du hongrois par Joëlle Dufeuilly. – Paris : Gallimard, 2000. – Traduction de : Sátántangó
La mélancolie de la résistance : roman / traduit du hongrois par Joëlle Dufeuilly. – Paris : Gallimard, 2006. – Traduction de : Az ellenállás melankóliája
Au nord par une montagne, au sud par un lac, à l’ouest par des chemins, à l’est par un cours d’eau / traduit du hongrois par Joëlle Dufeuilly. – Paris : Cambourakis, 2010. – Traduction de: Északról hegy, Délről tó, Nyugatról utak, Keletről folyó
Thésée universel / traduit du hongrois par Joëlle Dufeuilly. – Marseille : Vagabonde, 2011. – Traduction de: A Théseus-általános
La venue d’Isaïe / traduit du hongrois par Joëlle Dufeuilly. – Paris : Cambourakis, 2013. – Traduction de : Megjött Ézsaiás
Guerre & guerre : roman / traduit du hongrois par Joëlle Dufeuilly. – Paris : Cambourakis, 2013. – Traduction de : Háború és háború
Sous le coup de la grâce : nouvelles de mort / traduit du hongrois par Marc Martin. – Sénouillac: Vagabonde, 2015. – Traduction de: Kegyelmi viszonyok
Seiobo est descendue sur terre : roman / traduit du hongrois par Joëlle Dufeuilly. – Paris : Cambourakis, 2018. – Traduction de: Seiobo járt odalent
Le dernier loup / traduit du hongrois par Joëlle Dufeuilly. – Paris : Cambourakis, 2019. – Traduction de: Az utolsó farkas
Le baron Wenckheim est de retour : roman / traduit du hongrois par Joëlle Dufeuilly. – Paris : Cambourakis, 2023. – Traduction de: Báró Wenckheim hazatér
Petits travaux pour un palais : pénétrer la folie des autres / traduit du hongrois par Joëlle Dufeuilly. – Paris : Cambourakis, 2024. – Traduction de: Aprómunka egy palotáért : bejárás mások őrületébe
Works in German
Gnadenverhältnisse / aus dem Ungarischen von Hans Skirecki und Juliane Brandt. – Berlin : Literarisches Colloquium Berlin, 1988 ; Berlin : Berliner Künstlerprogramm d. DAAD, 1988. – Originaltitel: Kegyelmi viszonyok
Satanstango : Roman / aus dem Ungarischen von Hans Skirecki. – Zürich : Ammann, 1990. – Originaltitel: Sátántangó
Melancholie des Widerstands : Roman / aus dem Ungarischen von Hans Skirecki. – Zürich : Ammann, 1992. – Originaltitel: Az ellenállás melankóliája
Der Gefangene von Urga : Roman / aus dem Ungarischen von Hans Skirecki. – Zürich : Ammann, 1993. – Originaltitel: Az urgai fogoly
Krieg und Krieg : Roman / aus dem Ungarischen von Hans Skirecki. – Zürich : Ammann, 1999. – Originaltitel: Háború és háború
Im Norden ein Berg, im Süden ein See, im Westen Wege, im Osten ein Fluss : Roman / aus dem Ungarischen von Christina Viragh. – Zürich : Ammann, 2005. – Originaltitel: Északről hegy, Délről tó, Nyugatról utak, Keletről folyó
Seiobo auf Erden : Erzählungen / aus dem Ungarischen von Heike Flemming. – Frankfurt am Main : S. Fischer, 2010. – Originaltitel: Seiobo járt odalent
Die Welt voran / aus dem Ungarischen von Heike Flemming. – Frankfurt am Main : S. Fischer, 2015. – Originaltitel: Megy a világ
Baron Wenckheims Rückkehr : Roman / aus dem Ungarischen von Christina Viragh. – Frankfurt am Main : S. Fischer, 2018. – Originaltitel: Báró Wenckheim hazatér
Herscht 07769 : Florian Herscht Bach-Roman : Erzählung / aus dem Ungarischen von Heike Flemming. – Frankfurt am Main : S. Fischer, 2021. – Originaltitel: Herscht 07769 : Florian Herscht Bach-regénye
Im Wahn der Anderen : drei Erzählungen / aus dem Ungarischen von Heike Flemming ; mit Zeichnungen von Max Neumann und einem Schlagzeugsolo von Miklós Szilveszter. Inhalt: Animalinside ; Kleinstarbeit für einen Palast ; Richtung Homer. – Frankfurt am Main : S. Fischer, 2023. – Originaltitel: Mindig Homérosznak, Aprómunka egy palotáért, ÁllatVanBent
Works in Swedish
Motståndets melankoli / översättning av Daniel Gustafsson Pech. – Stockholm : Norstedts, 2014. – Originaltitel: Az ellenállás melankóliája
Satantango / översättning av Daniel Gustafsson Pech. – Stockholm : Norstedts, 2015. – Originaltitel: Sátántangó
Seiobo där nere / översättning av Daniel Gustafsson. – Stockholm : Norstedts, 2017. – Originaltitel: Seiobo járt odalent
Den sista vargen / översättning av Daniel Gustafsson. – Stockholm : Norstedts, 2020. – Originaltitel: Az utolsó farkas
Herscht 07769 : Florian Herschts roman om Bach / översättning av Daniel Gustafsson. – Stockholm : Norstedts, 2023. – Originaltitel: Herscht 07769 : Florian Herscht Bach-regénye
Other
Dames, Nicholas, The Chapter : A Segmented History from Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century. – Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2023
Hansson, Cecilia, ”László Krasznahorkai : verkligheten var inte viktig för oss” ur Hopplöst, men inte allvarligt : konst och politik i Centraleuropa. – Stockholm : Natur & Kultur, 2017
Krasznahorkai, László, “The Last Boat” and “Getting Away from Bogdanovich” in Thy Kingdom Come : 19 Short Stories by 11 Hungarian Authors / translated by Eszter Molnár. – Budapest : Noran/Palatinus, 1999
Krasznahorkai, László, ”Muet face au sourd”. Le grand tour : autoportrait de l’Europe par ses écrivains / ouvrage collectif sous la direction d’Olivier Guez. – Paris : Bernard Grasset, 2022
Krasznahorkai, László, ”Under barberarens hand” i Motivutveckling : en antologi med 14 ungerska berättelser från 80-talet / översättning och redaktörskap: Jorgos Alevras. – Stockholm : Symposion, 1990
”László Krasznahorkai” in Die Paris Review Interviews – 03 / übersetzt von Alexandra Steffes. – Düsseldorf : Weltkiosk, 2019
“László Krasznahorkai, Béla Tarr, Max Neumann” in Music and Literature. Issue two, Spring 2013
Le Grand Tour : autoportrait de l’Europe par ses écrivains / ouvrage collectif sous la direction d’Olivier Guez. – Paris : Bernard Grasset, 2022
Lending, Mari, ”Fabrics of Reality : Art and Architecture in László Krasznahorkai” in Reading Architecture : Literary Imagination and Architectural Experience / edited by Angeliki Sioli and Yoonchun Jung. – New York : Routledge, 2018
Thirlwell, Adam, ”The Art of Fiction No. 240 : László Krasznahorkai” in The Paris Review, no 225, 2018
Vihar, Judit, “Japanese Genji’s Hungarian Grandson” in In search of Prince Genji : Japan in Words and Images. – Budapest : Ferenc Hopp Museum of Asiatic Arts, 2015
Wood, James, “Reality Examined to the Point of Madness: László Krasznahorkai” in The fun Stuff and Other Essays. – New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012
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