The Global Booker Prize Awarded to Hungarian Author

The prestigious Global Booker Prize was awarded on Tuesday, May 18, to Hungary's most famous living writer, László Krasznahorkai. He is often compared to Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett. The esteemed 'Man Booker International Prize', which comes with a cash award of £60,000, is awarded every two years to a living author for their body of work, either in English or translated into English. Along with László Krasznahorkai, who gained significant fame with his first two novels 'Satantango' and 'Melancholy of Resistance', two of his translators, George Szirtes and Otília Molnár, also received a £15,000 prize. Mr. Krasznahorkai competed for this award against nine other renowned authors, including Amitav Ghosh from India, Ibrahim al-Koni from Libya, Mia Couto from Mozambique, and Fanny Howe from the USA. Marina Warner, a writer, university professor, and chair of the judging panel for this edition of the Man Booker Prize, praised László Krasznahorkai on Tuesday, stating: '[His works] are as difficult as those of Samuel Beckett, as Dante is difficult. Kafka has that same quality.' László Krasznahorkai, who is himself a devotee of Franz Kafka, the creator of 'The Metamorphosis' and 'The Castle', has said about Kafka: 'When I am not reading Kafka, I think about Kafka. When I am not thinking about Kafka, I miss thinking about him. After a while of this longing, I pick up his works again and read them once more.' Susan Sontag, the American writer and thinker, described the Hungarian Krasznahorkai as a 'master of the apocalypse' who 'stands alongside Gogol and Melville'. Other novels by László Krasznahorkai include 'Seibo There Below' and 'War and War'. The Global Booker Prize has previously been awarded to Ismail Kadare from Albania, Chinua Achebe from Nigeria, Philip Roth and Lydia Davis from the USA, and Alice Munro from Canada.