France

French author wins Nobel Prize for Literature

Article published on the 2008-10-09 Latest update 2008-10-09 15:45 TU

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
(Photo: Reuters)

France's Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio has been awarded this year's Nobel Prize for Literature. Le Clézio's first novel, The Deposition, was published in 1963 when he was just 23-years-old. The novel won the Renaudot award in the same year. This is France's second most prestigious literarary award after the Goncourt Prize.

Following publication of The Deposition, Le Clézio was immediately labelled as one of the Nouveau Roman (New Novel) movement led by Alain Robbe-Grillet.

He rapidly became a cult figure who chronicled the perils of modern life.

Le Clézio was born in the southern French city of Nice in 1940 to an English father and French mother. He went on to study literature and taught for a short while at the universities of London and Bristol in the UK.

In the late 1960s he travelled to Mexico and Panama where he spent several months living with Emberas Indians. He later described this period as an experience which changed his ideas about life and art.

Some of his better-known novels include Wandering Star and Onitsha, both have been translated into English.

Earlier this week, French scientists Françoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier won the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine for their discovery of the viruses behind Aids.