2014 Nobel Literature prize

 

French author Patrick Modiano wins 2014 Nobel Literature prize

 

French historical author Patrick Modiano has won the 2014 Nobel Prize for literature.

The Nobel Academy described the novelist, whose work has often focused on the Nazi occupation of France, as "a Marcel Proust of our time".

The award - presented to a living writer - is worth eight million kronor (£691,000).

Patrick Modiano has been a national literary treasure in France for decades. But up until now, he has also been one of the country's best-kept secrets. Only a handful of his 25-odd novels have been translated into English.
 
One reason for this might be that Modiano's storylines are as slim as the books themselves. They usually centre on young men cast adrift among high-living crooks in 1960s Paris
Modiano's debut novel, La Place de l'Etoile, was published in 1968 but, more than 40 years later, has yet to be translated into English.

 
Many of Modiano's other works have been translated into English, among them Les boulevards de ceinture (1972; Ring Roads : A Novel, 1974), Villa Triste (1975; Villa Triste, 1977), Quartier perdu (1984; A Trace of Malice, 1988) and Voyage de noces (1990; Honeymoon, 1992).
 
His most recent novel is Pour que tu ne te perdes pas dans le quartier (2014).


Modiano also worked with film director Louis Malle on the screenplay of Lacombe Lucien (1974), a feature film about a teenage boy during the German occupation of France.
His sixth novel, Missing Person (French title: Rue des boutiques obscures), won the French literary accolade the Prix Goncourt in 1978.
Other prizes include Grand prix du roman de l'Academie francaise in 1972 and the 2010 prix mondial Cino Del Duca by the Institut de France for lifetime achievement.
In 2012, he won the Austrian State Prize for European Literature.


At a press conference in Paris, the publicity-shy Modiano expressed his surprise at the win and said he was keen to find out why he was chosen.
"I wasn't expecting it at all," he said. "It was like I was a bit detached from it all, as if a doppelganger with my name had won."
Modiano beat bookies' favourites Japanese writer Haruki Murakami and Kenyan novelist, poet and playwright Ngugi wa Thiong'o. The last French writer to win the prize was Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio in 2008.
The academy said the award was "for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation"

"This is someone who has written many books that echo off each other... that are about memory, identity and aspiration," Peter Englund, the academy's permanent secretary said.

Nobel  Literature prize previous winners
A total 111 individuals have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature between 1901 and 2014.
Last year's winner was Canadian author Alice Munro.
Previous winners include literary giants such as Rudyard Kipling, Toni Morrison and Ernest Hemingway.