French writer Patrick Modiano， 70， has won the 2014 Nobel Prize for Literature for works that made him “a Marcel Proust (a well-known French author in the 19th century) of our time” with tales often set during the Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II.

Relatively unknown outside of France and a renowned media recluse， Modiano’s works have centered on memory， loss and the puzzle of identity. He has written novels， children’s books and film scripts.

The Swedish Academy said the award of 8 million Swedish crowns (about 6.8 million yuan) was “for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies”.

Peter Englund， permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy， noted that Modiano’s works are “always variations of the same thing， about memory， about loss， about identity， about seeking.”

In France， Modiano is a respected writer， The New York Times reported. His books， often coming in shorter than 200 pages， are widely read. Many of his fictional works are set in Paris during World War II， and some play with the detective genre.

Refined repetition

His first novel La Place de l’Etoile， published in 1968， remains probably his best known book and touched on many themes that he would return to throughout his career， including the fate of the Jews under the Nazis.

Modiano， reacting to the award， said he felt like he had been writing versions of the same book for many years.

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

“Of the unique things about him， one is of course his style， which is very precise， very economical. He writes small， short， very elegant sentences，” Englund said. “And he returns to generally the same topics again and again， simply because these topics cannot be exhausted.”

“After each novel， I have the impression that I have cleared it all away，” Modiano told France Today in a 2011 interview. “But I know I’ll come back over and over again to tiny details， little things that are part of what I am.”

“In the end， we are all determined by the place and the time in which we were born.”

Modiano is not an unfamiliar name in Chinese literary circle. Many of his works have been translated into Chinese and have been an influence on some Chinese writers. The late writer Wang Xiaobo， for example， opened his own novel Temple of Eternal Life with the opening sentences from Modiano’s Missing Person: “I am nothing. Nothing but a pale shape.”

現(xiàn)年70歲的法國(guó)作家帕特里克·莫迪亞諾獲得了2014年諾貝爾文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)。因其作品多以二戰(zhàn)期間納粹統(tǒng)治下的巴黎為背景，莫迪亞諾被喻為“當(dāng)代的馬塞爾·普魯斯特（19世紀(jì)著名法國(guó)作家）”。

在法國(guó)之外，莫迪亞諾鮮為人知，也很少接受媒體采訪。他的作品集中探討記憶、遺忘以及身份之謎。他不僅寫(xiě)過(guò)小說(shuō)，還寫(xiě)過(guò)兒童讀物和電影劇本。

瑞典皇家科學(xué)院稱(chēng)，之所以將800萬(wàn)瑞典克朗（約680萬(wàn)元人民幣）的諾獎(jiǎng)獎(jiǎng)金頒給他，是因?yàn)樗耙杂洃浀乃囆g(shù)，喚醒了人類(lèi)最難以捉摸的命運(yùn)”。

瑞典皇家科學(xué)院常任秘書(shū)彼得·英格倫這樣評(píng)價(jià)莫迪亞諾的作品：“（他的作品）是同一事物的各個(gè)方面，關(guān)于記憶、遺失、身份以及尋覓?！?/p>

據(jù)《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》報(bào)道，在法國(guó)，莫迪亞諾是一位受人尊敬的作家。他的書(shū)通常不到200頁(yè)，卻被廣泛閱讀。他的小說(shuō)多以二戰(zhàn)時(shí)的巴黎為背景，另一些則涉獵偵探題材。

優(yōu)雅的“重復(fù)”

莫迪亞諾的處女作《星形廣場(chǎng)》出版于1968年，至今仍是他最著名的作品。該書(shū)包含的諸多主題，貫穿了他整個(gè)的創(chuàng)作生涯，包括納粹統(tǒng)治下猶太人的命運(yùn)等。

對(duì)于獲獎(jiǎng)一事，莫迪亞諾說(shuō)，他覺(jué)得自己多年來(lái)不過(guò)是在寫(xiě)同一本書(shū)的各種版本。

他在巴黎的新聞發(fā)布會(huì)上表示：“我很想知道他們?yōu)楹芜x中我……因?yàn)闆](méi)有一個(gè)人能真正成為自己的讀者。而且我覺(jué)得自己45年來(lái)一直在寫(xiě)同一本書(shū)?！?/p>

英格倫則說(shuō)：“他有許多與眾不同之處，精練的寫(xiě)作風(fēng)格就是其中之一，他筆下的句子短小、文雅。他一次次回到相同的主題，只因?yàn)檫@些都是永恒的主題?！?/p>

在2011年接受《今日法國(guó)》采訪時(shí)，莫迪亞諾說(shuō)：

“每寫(xiě)完一本小說(shuō)，我覺(jué)得自己已將其完全拋于腦后，但我知道自己還是會(huì)一次次在細(xì)節(jié)中回歸，因?yàn)槟切┪⑿≈幷俏业囊徊糠帧?/p>

“最終，我們都由自己出生時(shí)的時(shí)間和空間所決定。”

在中國(guó)文學(xué)圈中，莫迪亞諾并不是一個(gè)陌生的名字。他的很多作品都被譯成中文，影響了一批中國(guó)作家。其中，已故作家王小波就曾將他《暗店街》中的句子“我的過(guò)去，一片朦朧”作為自己小說(shuō)《萬(wàn)壽寺》的開(kāi)篇語(yǔ)。