18 Facts About Patrick Modiano

Patrick Modiano is a noted writer of autofiction, the blend of autobiography and historical fiction.

In more than 40 books, Modiano has used his fascination with the human experience of World War II in France to examine individual and collective identities, responsibilities, loyalties, memory, and loss.

Patrick Modiano's works have been translated into more than 30 languages and have been celebrated in and around France, but most of his novels had not been translated into English before he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Patrick Modiano 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.

Jean Patrick Modiano was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, a commune in the western suburbs of Paris on July 30,1945.

Patrick Modiano's mother, Louisa Colpeyn, was a Flemish actress.

Patrick Modiano's father had refused to wear the yellow badge that Jews were required to wear and did not turn himself in when Paris Jews were rounded up for deportation to Nazi concentration camps.

Patrick Modiano was picked up in February 1942, and narrowly missed deportation, thanks to a friend's intervention.

Patrick Modiano was initially brought up by his maternal grandparents who taught him Flemish as his first language.

Patrick Modiano dedicated his works from 1967 to 1982 to Rudy.

Patrick Modiano's father enrolled him in hypokhagne against his will and he soon stopped attending classes.

Patrick Modiano's meeting with Queneau, author of Zazie dans le metro, was crucial.

In 1968 at the age of 22, Patrick Modiano published his first book La Place de l'Etoile, a wartime novel about a Jewish collaborator, after having read the manuscript to Queneau.

In 1973, Patrick Modiano co-wrote the screenplay of Lacombe, Lucien with Louis Malle who directed the film.

All of Patrick Modiano's works are written from a place of "mania".

Patrick Modiano wrote by piecing together newspaper cuttings, vague testimonies and old telephone directories, looking at outsider living on the outskirts of the city.

Patrick Modiano is one of the 8 members of the jury of the French literary award Prix Contrepoint.

Patrick Modiano himself found it unexpected, but said he was "touched" by the recognition.