The Black Notebook
PATRICK MODIANO trans. Mark Polizzotti

Patrick Modiano is a very quiet writer, so much so that news of his winning the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature was an astonishment outside his native France – and surprised many even of his fellow citi­zens. He is also a haunting and haunted one. His first novel was called La place de l’étoile and subsequent titles often refer to Parisian cafes and neighbourhoods (one is even called Ring Roads), with darkness another recurring theme (another early novel is The Night Watch; a recent novella is Paris Nocturne).