PARIS, October 9 (RIA Novosti) – French President Francois Hollande has sent his "warmest congratulations" to Patrick Modiano, a French writer, who won this year's Nobel Prize for Literature earlier on Thursday, the Elysee Palace said in a statement.
"The Republic is proud that one of the greatest French writers has gained worldwide recognition thanks to the Nobel Prize. Patrick Modiano is the fifteenth Frenchman to receive this high award, which demonstrates the huge impact of our literature," Hollande said as quoted in the statement.
The French president also congratulated Éditions Gallimard, the house, which has published all Modiano's works starting with the first book.
The head of the Russian publishing house Text Olgert Libkin announced on Thursday plans to hold talks with Gallimard on requiring rights for a Russian translation of the latest Modiano's books which have not been published in Russia yet.
Patrick Modiano was born on July 30, 1945 in a suburb of Paris. His father was a businessman and his mother - an actress. He made his debut as a writer in 1968 and immediately drew the attention of a large number of readers and critics. The core subjects of Modiano's literary works are the themes of memory, oblivion, identity and sense of guilt. The author writes a lot about Paris, and quite often his stories are based on autobiographical memories or events that took place during the German occupation of Paris during the Second World War.
