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Hungarian writer Krasznahorkai wins 2015 Man Booker Prize

Thursday, 21 May 2015 6:56 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 21 May 2015 6:59 AM ]

Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai, winner of the 2015 Man Booker International Prize

Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai has won the 2015 Man Booker International Prize for his “achievement in fiction on the world stage.”

Krasznahorkai beat 9 other authors shortlisted for this year’s award, including Amitav Ghosh from India, Ibrahim al-Koni from Libya, Mia Couto from Mozambique and Fanny Howe from the US.

Head of the judging panel Marina Warner described Krasznahorkai as “a visionary writer of extraordinary intensity and vocal range, who captures the texture of present-day existence in scenes that are terrifying, strange, appallingly comic, and often shatteringly beautiful.”

The 61-year-old author has decided to split the £15,000 translator’s prize awarded separately between the two translators of his works, the Hungarian-born British poet George Szirtes and Hungarian literary critic Ottilie Mulzet.

Krasznahorkai rose to fame after the publication of his first novel, “Satantango,” in 1985. The bleakly comic story was later adapted for the cinema in collaboration with acclaimed Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr.

“The Melancholy of Resistance” later won Krasznahorkai the German Bestenliste Prize for the best literary work of the year in 1993.

Krasznahorkai has also won the Kossuth Prize, an annual state-sponsored award, granted by the Hungarian National Assembly to acknowledge outstanding personal and group achievements in the fields of science, culture and the arts.

The Man Booker International Prize is worth £60,000 and is awarded every two years to a living author of any nationality for a body of work published in English or available in English translation.

TE/HJL

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