A short life of the author
Patrick Modiano (b. 30 July 1945) was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. His father was an Italian Jew who survived the Occupation through shadowy dealings, and his mother was a Belgian actress. The absent, mysterious father and the atmosphere of wartime Paris pervade all his work.
Life and Career
La Place de l’Étoile (1968) — his debut, written when he was twenty-two — is a wild, satirical novel about a French-Jewish collaborator. Rue des Boutiques Obscures (Missing Person, 1978) — about an amnesiac detective who investigates his own past identity — won the Prix Goncourt.
Dora Bruder (1997) — a nonfiction work tracing the life and disappearance of a fifteen-year-old Jewish girl deported from Paris in 1942 — is his most moving book. Dans le café de la jeunesse perdue (In the Café of Lost Youth, 2007) is a characteristic Modiano novel: short, elusive, set in the streets and cafés of Paris, haunted by disappearances.
Major Works and Themes
Modiano writes, essentially, one novel: a search through the streets of Paris for missing persons, lost identities, and the traces of the Occupation. His novels are short, atmospheric, and deliberately incomplete — the reader shares the narrator’s bewilderment.
Key Works
- Missing Person (1978)
- Dora Bruder (1997)
Collecting Modiano
French originals (Gallimard) are the primary collected form. English translations (Yale, NYRB) bring $10–$25. Modiano continues to publish.