At 1 a.m. Chicago time, this blog received a ping from Sao Paolo, Brazil from an iPhone that hasn’t yet updated to iOS 26. The ping was 0 seconds, so it was not someone interested in reading, just signaling. Or perhaps accidentally visiting, who knows?

The ping was for a story in my Dekalog series, from Episode 3, that phantasmagorical journey across early Christmas morning Warsaw by two people who once had an affair. In this piece, titled Surrealism, I noted similarities to the Eastern European tradition of literature. I cited Gogol, Kafka and a contemporary Hungarian novelist named Laszlo Krasznahorkai.

Roughly four hours later, the Nobel committee awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in literature to Krasznahorkai.

It could have no meaning, it could have great meaning, who knows? If one of my readers had a sense that Krasznahorkai was about to win the Nobel and sent this ping in advance, like a value-less bet placed in a spot only I might recognize — bravo. I have a far more sophisticated readership than I knew.

More likely, it’s just a coincidence … just the type that Kieslowski would appreciate best. Or perhaps Don DeLillo, the living writer who has been most unfairly ignored by the Nobel committee so far.