STOCKHOLM (AP) — Hungarian László Krasznahorkai, who won the Nobel Prize in literature for his surreal and anarchic novels that combine a bleak world view with mordant humor, gave a lecture in Stockholm on Sunday in one of his rare public appearances.
The lecture was part of the Nobel week that is underway in Stockholm and Oslo with laureates holding news conferences and giving speeches before they are awarded the prestigious prizes.
Krasznahorkai's lecture, which he gave in Hungarian, ranged across topics such as old and new angels, human dignity, hope or the lack thereof, rebellion and his observations of a clochard — or tramp — on the Berlin subway.
He introduced his lecture, according to the English translation, by saying that “on receiving the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature, I originally wished to share my thought with you on the subject of hope, but as my stores of hope have definitely come to an end, I will now speak about angels.”
As opposed to “the angels of old,” the new angels, Krasznahorkai said, “have no wings, but they also have no message, none whatsoever. They are merely here among us in their simple street clothes, unrecognizable if they so wish.
“They just stand there and look at us, they are searching for our gaze, and in this search there is a plea for us, to look into their eyes, so that we ourselves can transmit a message to them, only that unfortunately, we have no message to give,” the author writes in sad, yet poetic prose.
Expressing himself in his long, winding trademark sentences full of apocalypse but without full stops, he says it comes as a shock when he “detects the horrific story of these new angels that stand before me, the story that they are sacrifices, sacrifices: and not for us, but because of us, for every single one of us, because of every single one of us, angels without wings and angels without a message, and all the while knowing that there is war, war and only war, war in nature, war in society, and this war is being waged not only with weapons, not only with torture, not only with destruction: of course, this is one end of the scale, but this war proceeds at the opposite of the scale as well, because one single bad word is enough.”
When the Nobel judges announced the award for Krasznahorkai in October, they described the 71-year-old as “a great epic writer” whose work “is characterized by absurdism and grotesque excess.”
“Krasznahorkai’s work can be seen as part of a Central European tradition," the Nobel Prize organization said. ”Important features are pessimism and apocalypse, but also humor and unpredictability."
His novels include Satantango, The Melancholy of Resistance, War & War, Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming and Herscht 07769.
Last year’s winner was South Korean author Han Kang. The 2023 winner was Norwegian writer Jon Fosse, whose work includes a seven-book epic made up of a single sentence.
Meanwhile, the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Kristian Harpviken, said Saturday that Venezuelan Peace Prize laureate and opposition leader María Corina Machado will come to Oslo this week to receive her award in person.
The 58-year-old, who won for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation, has been in hiding and has not been seen in public since January.
Harpviken told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that Machado was expected to personally pick up the prize on Wednesday.
“I spoke with the Peace Prize winner last night, and she will come to Oslo,” Harpviken said, according to NRK.
Nobel Prize award ceremonies are held on Dec. 10, the anniversary of founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896. The award ceremony for peace is in Oslo and the other ceremonies are in Stockholm.
FILE - The Nobel medal in physiology or medicine presented to Charles M. Rice is displayed, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020, during a ceremony in New York. (Angela Weiss/Pool Photo via AP, File)
László Krasznahorkai, laureate in literature, speaks during the signing of the Nobel chair at the Nobel Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (Claudio Bresciani/TT News Agency via AP)
HONG KONG (AP) — About a third of Hong Kong 's registered voters elected a new 90-member legislature Sunday, a turnout that avoided an embarrassment for the government but fell short of a ringing endorsement of an electoral system revamp that eliminated the once feisty opposition in the Chinese territory.
The turnout rate reached 31.9%, surpassing the 30.2% in the 2021 election, the first held under the new system. It was much lower than before the electoral changes, when turnout topped 50%.
Many of the city’s 4.1 million eligible voters, especially democracy supporters, have turned away from politics since a crackdown that has stifled dissent. Candidates must now go through a vetting process that ensures they are patriots who are loyal to the Chinese government. The government says the changes were needed to bring stability after massive anti-government protests in 2019.
The government launched a major campaign to drive up turnout, adding polling stations, extending voting hours and holding candidate forums. But public anger over government accountability in an apartment fire that killed at least 159 people late last month threatened to keep some potential voters at home.
In the end, enough came out to nudge up the turnout rate from 2021.
“I’m performing my civic duty as a citizen to vote … but I’m not too certain which candidate is hardworking and which is not,” retiree Kwan Lam said outside a polling station. “I chose the one who cares for the elderly.”
Ahead of the vote, Chinese authorities called foreign media to a rare meeting to warn them that they need to comply with the city's national security laws.
Election campaigning was suspended after the fire and remained subdued in the final days out of respect for the victims.
Government efforts to drive up turnout, seen as a referendum on the new electoral system, had been in full swing before the blaze. Promotional banners and posters were hung throughout the city and subsidies offered to centers for older people and people with disabilities to help them vote.
Authorities arrested people who allegedly posted content that incited others not to vote or cast invalid votes.
Hong Kong's deadliest fire in decades has raised questions over government oversight and suspected bid-rigging in building maintenance projects. The 1980s-era apartment complex was undergoing renovations.
Some candidates pledged to combat bid-rigging.
City leader John Lee said last week that going ahead with the election, rather than delaying it, would better support the response to the fire.
"They have all experienced this fire and shared the pain,” he said of the city's Legislative Council. “They will certainly work with the government to promote reforms, diligently review funding, and draft relevant laws.”
Even before the 2021 electoral changes, only half of what had been a 70-member legislature was chosen by the general electorate.
Now, that has been reduced to 20 out of 90 seats and 40 others are chosen by a largely pro-Beijing election committee. The remaining 30 represent various groups — mainly major industries such as finance, health care and real estate — and are elected by their members.
The “patriots” requirement for all candidates has pushed out the opposition parties, which advocated for making the system more democratic.
The candidate pool seems to reflect Beijing's desire to have more lawmakers who are more in tune with its agenda, some observers said, in what they see as signs of Beijing’s tightening control even over its loyalists.
Lee has said that personnel changes are normal during an election. He criticized attempts to “distort” these changes to smear the new election system.
A fall in turnout would have shown that even some government supporters are staying away, said John Burns, an honorary professor of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong.
“It is a reflection of public sentiment,” he said.
Beijing’s national security arm in Hong Kong summoned representatives of several foreign news outlets, including The Associated Press, on Saturday.
Some foreign media had spread false information and smeared the government's disaster relief efforts after the fire, as well as attacked and interfered with the legislative elections, the Office for Safeguarding National Security said in a statement.
“No media outlet may use ‘freedom of the press’ as a pretext to interfere in China’s internal affairs or Hong Kong affairs,” the statement said.
Authorities have warned the general public against using the fire to try to undermine the government and have arrested at least one person on suspicion of inciting hatred against government officials.
Moritsugu reported from Beijing. Associated Press writer Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
People walk past a polling station near the site of the fire at Wang Fuk Court in the Tai Po district during the Legislative Council General Election in Hong Kong on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Hong Kong's Chief Executive, John Lee casts his ballot at a polling station during the Legislative Council General Election in Hong Kong on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
People read the candidates information at a polling station near the site of the fire at Wang Fuk Court in the Tai Po district during the Legislative Council General Election in Hong Kong on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Hong Kong's Chief Executive John Lee, poses for photos at a polling station during the Legislative Council General Election in Hong Kong on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Hong Kong's Chief Executive John Lee speaks to the media at a polling station during the Legislative Council General Election in Hong Kong on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Hong Kong's Chief Executive John Lee casts his ballot at a polling station during the Legislative Council General Election in Hong Kong on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
People look at a candidate brochure of the Hong Kong Legislative Council General Election at a forum in Hong Kong on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Pedestrians walk past the banner promoting the Hong Kong Legislative Council General Election in Hong Kong on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
