Patrick Modiano was born in Paris, France in 1945. He was the recipient of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature. He previously won the 2012 Austrian State Prize for European Literature, the 2010 Prix mondial Cino Del Duca from the Institut de France for lifetime achievement, the 1978 Prix Goncourt for Rue des boutiques obscures, and the 1972 Grand Prix du roman de l'Academie francaise for Les Boulevards de ceinture.
A compelling meditation on identity and memory, and an evocative portrait of [Paris] * The Lady * Modiano's characters are deliberately elusive, his settings, by contrast, scrupulously and atmospherically drawn -- Lucy Popescu * Financial Times * Modiano takes up his struggle with memory again, resuscitating people and places in one magnificent, impressionistic, tracking shot -- Marianne Payot * Express * One can open this novel at any page, as if flicking through a collection of prose poems ... the smallest passage is enough to transport its reader. A rare, undefinable pleasure -- Norbert Czarny * Quinzaine Litteraire * 1960's Paris, a mysterious girl, a group of shady characters, danger ... Modiano's folklore is set out from the beginning of The Black Notebook. And sheer magic follows once more -- Nelly Kaprielian * Vogue * Never before has Modiano produced a novel as lyrical as this ... the Baroque excess and violence of his earlier works has given way to a more pared-down, modest style that is both intricately wrought and magnificently fluid, sustained by pure poetry -- Denis Cosnard * Le Monde *