Nobel Prize for Literature awarded to Patrick Modiano

French novelist Patrick Modiano is the recipient of this year's coveted Nobel Prize for Literature. Modiano was born in Paris in 1945. His Belgian mother met his Jewish Italian father during the occupation of Paris. Modiano's works are frequently set in World War II during the Nazi occupation of France and explore themes of memory, loss and identity.

The Swedish Academy stated that they had chosen Modiano "for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation".

Although he has published 30 books, few have been translated into English. This is expected to change given the importance of this award.

"It's weird," Modiano responded when contacted about the prize by his publisher Antoine Gallimard. The author is notoriously low-key, generally avoiding the media despite the popularity of his books in France.

Some of Patrick Modiano's books at Toronto Public Library:

French