The performance would have been László Krasznahorkai's first as the year's Nobel Prize winner in literature, but the publisher informed the organizers that the Hungarian author had been forced to leave Óbidos due to "health issues that required immediate attention". He could not "participate in arrangements and media commitments that he looked forward to", the organizers were told.
In Óbidos, Krasznahorkai would have participated in a conversation on the theme "death" together with the authors Lionel Shriver and Rui Cardoso Martins
The week before, the Nobel Prize winner cancelled his attendance at the opening press conference at the book fair in Frankfurt. His participation in Frankfurt was announced after the announcement of the Nobel Prize.
When he cancelled, it was said to be due to health reasons, which was later denied on the author's Facebook page.
"The real reason is that he does not WANT to participate in the opening of today's book fair in Frankfurt, because he is devoting all his strength to contemplating how he will come to terms with having become the recipient of the wonderful, the incredible Nobel Prize."
