Contents
Patrick Modiano
Writing novels that reconstruct lost identities and memories of occupied Paris.
La Place de l’Étoile · Missing Person
- Born
- 30 July 1945
- Birthplace
- Boulogne-Billancourt, France
More people
Patrick Modiano
Patrick Modiano is a French novelist whose narrators search through addresses, traces and unreliable memories.
Early life
Postwar childhood
Grew up in the shadow of his parents’ wartime experiences.
Mentorship
Writer Raymond Queneau encouraged his literary development.
Career
- 1968
First novel
Published La Place de l’Étoile.
- 1970s
Wider recognition
Developed his recurring themes of disappearance and identity.
- 2014
Nobel Prize
Received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Selected work
La Place de l’Étoile
Confronted wartime identity through satire.
Missing Person
Followed an amnesiac investigating his own past.
Dora Bruder
Reconstructed traces of a deported Jewish teenager.
Beyond work
Screenwriting
Co-wrote Lacombe, Lucien with Louis Malle.
Paris
The city’s streets and addresses form a recurring geography in his work.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Nobel Prize biography and award ↗Photo: Frankie Fouganthin. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
