Patrick Modiano

French author Patrick Modiano wins Nobel Literature prize

By Marie Decreme
18/10/2014

At the age of 69, Patrick Modiano has received the Nobel Prize for Literature. The French author has been chosen by the Swedish Academy out of nearly one hundred and twenty candidates. “It’s weird” he said, “a bit unreal”. Well, we are very pleased!

France confirms its place as World champion of Literature thanks to yet another Nobel prize, ahead of the United States and the UK: Patrick Modiano is the fifteenth Frenchman to receive the distinction. His name now appears next to those of Camus, Sartre and Le Clézio… Great recognition for this author who wrote about thirty books focused on Paris during World War II.

In England, Patrick Modiano is perhaps better known for the screenplay he co-wrote with Louis Malle, Lacombe Lucien and: in this movie, he portrays a young man hesitating between the collaboration and the resistance, wondering which one will satisfy his thirst for action and violence. The film won in 1975 the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

The Academy awarded him for “the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life under the occupation.”