French author Patrick Modiano wins Nobel prize for literature

The Frenchman has written about the German occupation of his country during World War II.

|
Gallimard/AP
In this undated photo provided by publisher Gallimard, French novelist Patrick Modiano poses for a photograph. Patrick Modiano of France has won the 2014 Nobel Prize for Literature, it was announced Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014.

French writer Patrick Modiano has won the 2014 Nobel Prize for Literature for works that made him "a Marcel Proust of our time," the Swedish Academy said on Thursday.

Relatively unknown outside of France, Modiano's works have centered on memory, oblivion, identity and guilt that often take place during the German occupation of World War Two. He has written novels, children's books and film scripts.

"You could say he's a Marcel Proust of our time," Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, told reporters.

The academy said the award of 8 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million) was "for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation."

Some of Modiano's roughly 30 works include "A Trace of Malice" and "Honeymoon." His latest work is the novel "Pour que tu ne te perdes pas dans le quartier."

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said: "He is undoubtedly one of the greatest writers of recent years, of the early 21st century. This is well-deserved for a writer who is moreover discreet, as is much of his excellent work."

Modiano was born in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt in July 1945, several months after the official end of Nazi occupation in late 1944.

He was a protégé of novelist Raymond Queneau, famous for his experiments with language. Modiano has already won France's prestigious Goncourt prize in 1978 for his work.

"Of the unique things about him, one is of course his style which is very precise, very economical. He writes small, short, very elegant sentences," Englund said. "And he returns to generally the same topics again and again, simply because these topics cannot be exhausted."

Modiano became a household name in France during the late 1970s but never appeared comfortable before cameras and soon withdrew from the gaze of publicity.

He is also known for having co-written the script of Louis Malle's controversial 1974 movie "Lacombe Lucien" about a teenager living under the Occupation who is rejected by the French resistance and falls in with pro-Nazi collaborators.

"After each novel, I have the impression that I have cleared it all away," Modiano told France Today in a 2011 interview. "But I know I'll come back over and over again to tiny details, little things that are part of what I am."

"In the end, we are all determined by the place and the time in which we were born."

Jo Lendle, his German publisher at Hanser publishing house, said: "He was an author that was on the list for a long long time.

"We waited with him and now he won the prize. We are overwhelmed."

Bookies had made him one of the favorites along with Japanese writer Haruki Murakami and Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o. US writer Philip Roth, a perennial contender, was also overlooked.

The most number of winners of the literature prize have gone to authors who have written first in English, followed by French and German. Modiano is the 11th person from France to win the literature prize - the last was Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio in 2008.

Literature was the fourth of this year's Nobel Prizes. The prize is named after Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, and has been awarded since 1901 for achievements in science, literature and peace in accordance with his will. (1 US dollar = 7.1446 Swedish crown)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to French author Patrick Modiano wins Nobel prize for literature
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Latest-News-Wires/2014/1009/French-author-Patrick-Modiano-wins-Nobel-prize-for-literature
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe