A man holds a book of French author Patrick Modiano at the Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014. Modiano won this year's nobel prize for literature. AP — A man holds a book of French author Patrick Modiano at the Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014. Modiano won this year’s nobel prize for literature. AP

Who is Patrick Modiano?

French author Patrick Modiano, 69, whose novel “Rue des Boutiques Obscures” — English title: “Missing Person” — won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 1978.

The son of an Italian Jewish father and a Belgian mother, Modiano’s work repeatedly examines Jewishness and the Nazi occupation.

For what?

The Nobel judges praised Modiano for “the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation.”

What are his major works?

Modiano has published more than 40 works, but many have yet to be translated into English, including his first novel “La Place de l’Etoile.” Apart from “Missing Person,” those that have been translated into English include “Ring of Roads: A Novel,” ”Villa Triste,” ”A Trace of Malice,” and “Honeymoon.”

He has also written children’s books and film scripts, including co-writing the 1974 movie “Lacombe, Lucien” with director Louis Malle and the 2003 movie “Bon Voyage” with director Jean-Paul Rappeneau.
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