Patrick Modiano

One of the great novels of Paris, from the winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature. I am nothing. Nothing but a pale shape, silhouetted that evening against the cafe terrace, waiting for the rain to stop. Guy Roland, a private detective in Paris, is trying to solve the mystery of his own past. His memories erased by amnesia,...

A critically acclaimed #1 bestseller in France—a novel of art, desire, and time lost and regained, from Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano. "Pithy and introspective. . . . Modiano delivers wondrous images of the tricks memory plays, sharply translated by Polizzotti. . . . Readers will savour this wistful narrative."—Publishers Weekly (starred review) Paris, 1960s. A young dancer and single...

A classic novel from recent Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano, now available to English-language readers in a superb new translation "Modiano at his best."—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal (starred review) One of the hallmarks of French author Patrick Modiano’s writing is a singular ability to revisit particular motifs and episodes, infusing each telling with new detail and emotional nuance. In this...

Patrick Modiano explores the boundaries of recollection in a "mesmerizing, enigmatic novel" (Publishers Weekly). "A mesmerizing, enigmatic novel... A story about growing old and the gaps and omissions that make up a life... Its dreamlike prose and a beguiling structural twist make it a worthy and satisfying addition to [Modiano’s] accomplished oeuvre." — Publishers Weekly "Nobel Prize winner Modiano’s title...

A haunting novel that probes the enigmas of time and memory, by Nobel Prize–winning author Patrick Modiano. "Polizzotti's crisp and evocative translation keeps the reader hooked."—Publishers Weekly In his acclaimed semi-autobiographical novella Suspended Sentences, Patrick Modiano recounted a dramatic season in his childhood, of the home he shared with sinister surrogate parents, the mysterious events that took place there, and...

A haunting novella that probes the enigmas of time and memory, by Nobel Prize-winning author Patrick Modiano Nobel Prize-winning author Patrick Modiano revisits the places and events in his acclaimed semi-autobiographical novella Suspended Sentences: the season in his childhood during which he shared a home with sinister surrogate parents, the mysterious events that took place there, and an infamous heist...

The newest best-seller by Patrick Modiano is a beautiful tapestry that brings together memory, esoteric encounters, and fragmented sensations Patrick Modiano’s first novel since his 2014 Nobel Prize revisits moments of the author’s past to produce a spare yet moving reflection on the destructive underside of love, the dreams and follies of youth, the vagaries of memory, and the melancholy...

Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano’s spellbinding tale of adolescent schoolmates and the vicissitudes of fate. As a boarding school student in the early 1960s, Patrick Modiano lived among the troubled teenage sons of wealthy but self-involved parents. In this mesmerizing novel, Modiano weaves together a series of exquisitely crafted stories about such jettisoned boys at the exclusive Valvert School on the...

From beloved storyteller and Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano, a masterly and gripping crime novel set in picturesque Nice on the French Riviera Stolen jewels, black markets, hired guns, crossed lovers, unregistered addresses, people gone missing, shadowy figures disappearing in crowds, newspaper stories uncomfortably close and getting closer... this ominous novel is Patrick Modiano’s most noirish work to date. Set...

“Elegant. Unpretentious. Approachable. . . . He is, all in all, quite an endearing Nobelist.”—Michael Dirda, Washington Post “Modiano is a pure original.”—Adam Thirlwell, The Guardian “A fine introduction to Modiano’s later work.”—The Economist “These novellas have a mood. They cast a spell.”—Dwight Garner, New York Times In this essential trilogy of novellas by the winner of the 2014 Nobel...

One day in the corridors of the Metro, 19-year-old Thérèse sees a woman in a yellow coat. Could this be her mother? Who called her Little Jewel? But didn’t her mother die in Morocco years earlier? She follows the woman, hoping to find answers to questions that have haunted her since childhood. As Thérèse describes her elusive memories, travelling around...

At the outbreak of the Algerian war, a young man who calls himself Victor Chmara flees Paris for a small lakeside town on the border of France and Switzerland. It's here that he meets the flamboyant doctor Rene Meinthe and the beautiful and mysterious auburn-haired Yvonne. Victor quickly embraces their world of local pageants, soirées, and late-night debauchery, and begins...

An enthralling reflection on the ways that family history influences identity, from the 2014 Nobel laureate for literature A mix of autobiography and lucid invention, this highly personal work offers a deeply affecting exploration of the meaning of identity and pedigree. With his signature blend of candour, mystery, and bewitching elusiveness, Patrick Modiano weaves together a series of interlocking stories...

Nobel Prize-winning author Patrick Modiano's masterpiece- a moving memoir, a portrait of war-torn Europe and a hunt for one missing girl. WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE Missing, a young girl, Dora Bruder, age 15. One winter night in 1941, a Jewish girl runs away from her Paris boarding school. Stumbling across her disappearance listed in an old newspaper,...

Four narrators—a student from a café, a private detective hired by an aggrieved husband, the heroine herself, and one of her lovers—construct a portrait of Jacqueline Delanque, otherwise known as Louki. The daughter of a single mother who works in the Moulin Rouge, Louki grows up in poverty in Montmartre. Her one attempt to escape her background fails when she...

28 Paradises is a rare book: it reveals not only the individual talents of the authors, Modiano and Zehrfuss, but also the depth of the couple's creative union. Sensitively translated into English for the first time by Damion Searls, 28 Paradises captures the exquisite sadness of waking from a beautiful dream. There are twenty-eight dreams in this book, or perhaps...