Is Laszlo Krasznahorkai about to be huge?

The winner of the Man Booker International Prize takes a rare turn in the spotlight

Hungary's Laszlo Krasznahorkai.
(Image credit: (AP Photo/Matt Dunham))

Earlier this year, The New Yorker ran an essay called "Knausgaard or Ferrante?", a blunt choice that captures how these two European authors have come to dominate discussions of contemporary fiction in America. To this formulation it is tempting to parenthetically add, as if under one's breath, "or Krasznahorkai."

The Hungarian novelist has in recent years garnered similar adulation from Anglophone critics, but has yet to break into mainstream consciousness to the same degree. Ferrante is an international woman of mystery, Knausgaard is almost literally a rock star, but Laszlo Krasznahorkai remains something of a well-kept secret. "His work," James Wood once wrote, "tends to get passed around like rare currency."

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Ryu Spaeth

Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.