Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his “visionary and powerful body of work” that, according to the Nobel Committee, “reaffirms the power of art in the midst of apocalyptic terror.”

Krasznahorkai, 71, is known for his dense, philosophical novels often composed in sprawling single sentences. His debut novel Satantango, along with The Melancholy of Resistance, were adapted into critically acclaimed films by Hungarian director Béla Tarr.

The Nobel judges lauded his distinctive literary style and outlook, saying his work reflects “an artistic gaze free from illusion, revealing the fragility of the social order while maintaining an unshaken belief in the transformative force of art.”

Krasznahorkai has received numerous accolades throughout his career, including the 2015 Man Booker International Prize. The Booker jury highlighted his “extraordinarily long, elaborate sentences” whose tone ranges from “solemn to absurd, inquisitive to despairing.” He also received the 2019 U.S. National Book Award for Translated Literature for his novel Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming.

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He becomes the first Hungarian writer to win the Nobel in literature since Imre Kertész in 2002, joining a prestigious list of past laureates that includes literary giants such as Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison, and Kazuo Ishiguro.

This marks the 117th time the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded, with 121 individual recipients to date. Last year, the honor went to South Korean writer Han Kang, recognized for works that “confront historical traumas and reveal the fragility of human life.”

The literature prize is the fourth Nobel announced this week, following awards in medicine, physics, and chemistry. The Nobel Peace Prize will be revealed on Friday, while the final prize—the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences—will be announced on Monday.

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All Nobel awards are presented annually on December 10, commemorating the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite and founder of the Nobel Prizes.

Winners receive 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately $1.2 million), along with an 18-carat gold medal and a Nobel diploma.