Satanské tango – Krasznahorkai László (2026)

This seminal novel by Nobel Prize winner László Krasznahorkai explores devastation, emptiness and hopelessness. Satan’s Tango draws the reader into the gloomy, rainy atmosphere of the Hungarian puszta as a social reality, presenting a vision of universal ruin that connects the contemporary with the timeless. Two orders of things intertwine: constant decay and the attempt to capture and describe this process in a fixed form. What often appears otherworldly and irrational later reveals its earthly rationality. Even after forty years, the novel remains urgent. Human dignity, freedom, poverty, addiction, and the possibility of breaking free and escaping are among the central themes faced by its characters in a world of metaphysical ordinariness and visionary realism. A motto from Kafka’s The Castle recalls the omnipresent absurdity and hopelessness, as well as irony and exaggeration. The plot and structure unfold to the rhythm of a tango, moving in a circle, and the ending returns us to the beginning. Is there truly no escape? Winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature. The contents are in Czech.