Invisible Ink

Patrick Modiano, one of France’s most acclaimed contemporary novelists, was awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature. Mark Polizzotti has translated more than fifty books from the French, including nine others by Modiano.

“It is as a delineator of the labyrinths of human consciousness that Modiano excels. You feel the desperation with which the characters tug at the locked doors of their memories, and find yourself becoming more conscious of, and disturbed by, your own memory’s lacunae.”—Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph“With Modiano, the repressed always returns—but only in flickers and whispers at the edge of perception. His spare, elliptical prose—translated again with finesse and panache by Mark Polizzotti—casts its glow of mystery and menace over the tiniest detail.”—Boyd Tonkin, SpectatorFinalist for the Translation Prize, fiction category, sponsored by the French American FoundationPraise for Patrick Modiano:  “Modiano combines a detective’s curiosity with an elegist’s melancholy.”—Adam Kirsch, New Republic  “[Modiano] is a writer unlike any other and a worthy recipient of the Nobel.”—James Campbell, Wall Street Journal  “A body of work as deft and beautiful as any in postwar European literature. . . . [Modiano] is an excavator of memory.”—David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times  “Modiano is a pure original. He has transformed the novel into a laboratory for producing atmospheres, not situations—where everything must be inferred and nothing can be proved.”—Adam Thirlwell, The Guardian  “There are few modern writers as pleasurable or interesting to read. Modiano is one of the great writers of our time.” —David Herman, Jewish Chronicle