French author Patrick Modiano bags Nobel prize in literature

French writer Patrick Modiano has won the Nobel Prize for Literature, The Swedish Academy said on Thursday.

The 69-year-old author beat Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Haruki Murakami, Svetlana Alexievich and Philip Roth, who were the bookies’ favourites to take the prestigious prize.

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

The academy while announcing the award also added that hadn’t managed to track Modiano down yet to tell him about his win

Modiano published his first novel, La Place de l'Étoile, in 1968. In 1973 he co-wrote the screenplay of Lacombe Lucien, directed by Louis Malle, which tells the story of a boy in the French Gestapo during the German occupation of France in World War II.

Other notable works of literature include Rue des Boutiques Obscures (Missing Person), his 1996 novel Du Plus Loin de l’Oubli (Out Of The Dark) and Dora Bruder, published in 1997.

Image: French writer Patrick Modiano beat Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Haruki Murakami, Svetlana Alexievich and Philip Roth to bag the Nobel prize.