Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Nobel Winner Patrick Modiano Confesses ‘Been Writing Same Book for 45 Years’

French writer Patrick Modiano, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday, said he felt like he had been writing versions of the same book for 45 years and was eager to understand why he had been chosen for the prize.

“What I am keen to see are the reasons why they chose me … One can never really be one’s own reader,” Modiano told a news conference. “Even more so because I have the impression of writing the same book for 45 years.”

The writer, who set many of his tales in France under Nazi Occupation during World War Two, said he would dedicate the prize to his Swedish grandson.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.