Patrick Modiano

Patrick Modiano was born in Paris in 1945 in the immediate aftermath of World War Two and the Nazi occupation of France, a dark period which continues to haunt him. After passing his baccalaur?at, he left full-time education and dedicated himself to writing, encouraged by the French writer Raymond Queneau. From his very first book to his most recent, Modiano has pursued a quest for identity and some form of reconciliation with the past. His books have been published in forty languages and among the many prizes they have won are the Grand Prix du Roman de l'Acad?mie fran?aise (1972), the Prix Goncourt (1978) and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature (212). In 214 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.