László Krasznahorkai wins 2015 Man Booker International Prize

Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai has won the 2015 Man Booker International Prize. The £60,000 (A$117,600) biennial prize is awarded to a living author, whose body of work is available in English or English translation, in recognition of his or her contribution to fiction ‘on the world stage’. Krasznahorkai has been awarded numerous literary prizes for his work, including the German Bestenliste Prize for The Melancholy of Resistance (New Directions Publishing); the highest award of the Hungarian state, the Kossuth Prize; and the Best Translated Book Award in the US for Satantango in 2013 (Atlantic Books) and Seiobo There Below (Tuskar Rock Press) in 2014. Chair of the judging panel Marina Warner praised Krasznahorkai as a ‘visionary writer of extraordinary intensity and vocal range’, and his novels for being ‘magnificent works of deep imagination and complex passions’. Warner also praised Krasznahorkai’s two translators George Szirtes (who translated Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance) and Ottilie Mulzet (who translated Seiobo There Below), who will share the £15,000 (A$29,400) translators’ prize. Ten authors were nominated for the prize earlier in the year. For more information about the prize, visit the Man Booker Prize website here.

Category: International news