SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The newest Nobel laureate in literature was announced this morning. Laszlo Krasznahorkai is a Hungarian novelist and screenwriter. The 71-year-old writer was selected, according to the Swedish Academy, for work that reaffirms the power of art in the midst of apocalyptic terror. NPR's Neda Ulaby tells us more.
NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: Laszlo Krasznahorkai grew up in a remote rural town in communist Hungary.
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ULABY: A harsh, desolate place - at least that's how Krasznahorkai portrayed it in his first novel. "Satantango" was a sensation when it came out in Hungary in 1985. It was made into an acclaimed black and white movie in 1994 that's seven hours long.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As narrator, speaking Hungarian).
ULABY: It begins on an October morning, the narrator says, before the first drops of the long autumn rains. The story takes place at a nearly abandoned collective farm where life is so bleak and so depressing the people still there are all plotting to get away.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, speaking Hungarian).
ULABY: The novel was written without any paragraphs. It's just massive blocks of type. "Satantango" did not get an English translation until 2012, but one member of the Swedish Academy described it this morning as fueled with linguistic vitality. Steve Sem-Sandberg said a pair of tricksters show up and seem to the people at the ruined farm like messengers of hope - or of the last judgment.
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STEVE SEM-SANDBERG: It is impossible to know which.
ULABY: That darkness and uncertainty characterizes much of the author's work. In a 2012 interview at the Library of Congress, Krasznahorkai was surprised, he said, that "Satantango" was even published before the fall of the Soviet Union.
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LASZLO KRASZNAHORKAI: For example, in this book, you will find a character from the secret police. That was absolute forbidden to write about a secret agent.
ULABY: He got away with it, he speculated, because the decision might have been made by someone who used to be in the secret police.
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KRASZNAHORKAI: Perhaps he wanted to show how big is his power.
ULABY: Laszlo Krasznahorkai took on the apparatus of power in a body of work that was also awarded the Man Booker International Prize. His most recent novel published in English is also about a powerless protagonist - a graffiti cleaner who writes long letters to then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The whole book is one sentence that goes on for more than 300 pages. You need a big sentence, Krasznahorkai said at the Library of Congress, to write about big power. Neda Ulaby, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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