The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

Le Clézio awarded Nobel Prize

09.10.08 Katie Allen

French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2008.

He has already won Prix Théophraste Renaudot (1963), Prix Larbaud (1972), Grand Prix Jean Giono (1997), Prix Prince de Monaco (1998) and Stig Dagermanpriset (2008). His novel Désert received the Grand Prix Paul Morand from l’Académie française in 1980.

His first novel was Le procès-verbal (The Interrogation) in 1963. He has since written a raft of ecologically-themed novels including Terra amata; Le livre des fuites (The Book of Flights); La guerre (War); and Les géants (The Giants). Among Le Clézio’s most recent works are Ourania (2005); Raga: approche du continent invisible (2006); and Ballaciner (2007). A new work, Ritournelle de la faim, has just been published. Le Clézio has also written several books for young people.

Born in Nice in 1940, Le Clézio moved to Nigeria with his family when he was eight, before returning in 1950. He went on to study English at Bristol University, completing his degree in Nice, taking a Master's at the University of Aix-en-Provence in 1964 and writing a doctoral thesis at the University of Perpignan in 1983. He has taught at universities in Bangkok, Mexico City and Boston among others. Since the '90s Le Clézio and his wife share their time between Albuquerque in New Mexico, the island of Mauritius and Nice.

Katie Allen News Nobel Prize in Literature

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