( CNN ) -- A French author whose tales center on memory and guilt has won this year 's Nobel Prize in literature , the Nobel committee in Sweden said Thursday . Patrick Modiano , 69 , is the 11th Nobel literature prize winner born in France . He is being honored `` for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation , '' the committee said . Peter Englund , permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy , said Modiano was `` well known in France , but pretty well not anywhere else . '' Born in 1945 , Modiano has published some 30 books , mainly novels -- for which he is chiefly known -- but also some children 's books and movie scripts . His novels tend to be short , often 130 to 150 pages in length , and written in simple language , Englund said , but they are refined and elegant in nature . `` They are always versions of the same theme -- about memory , about loss , about identity , about seeking , '' he said . Modiano , who published his first novel in 1968 , has previously been recognized with some of the most prestigious prizes in French literature , including the Prix Goncourt in 1978 . Englund 's own recommendation ? The novel `` Missing Person , '' which plays with the detective genre as its protagonist , who has lost his memory , seeks to find out who he really is . The Swedish committee has not yet been able to reach Modiano to tell him of his win , he added . Troubled past . In a 2011 interview with the cultural journal France Today , Modiano said of writing , `` Actually , I never thought of doing anything else . '' The child of a Belgian mother and an Italian Jewish father , his was a difficult , fragmented childhood , the journal says . His experiences are recounted in his memoir , `` Un Pedigree , '' published in 2005 . His works are infused with questions of identity , often tied in with France 's troubled past during the Nazi Occupation . `` After each novel , I have the impression that I have cleared it all away , '' he told France Today . `` 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 . '' Sticking with familiar themes , he also made the 1974 movie `` Lacombe , Lucien '' with director Louis Malle , which was set during the Occupation . His latest work is the novel `` Pour que tu ne te perdes pas dans le quartier , '' published this month . The Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded 107 times since 1901 . It is almost always awarded to one author and has been shared only four times , which stands in contrast to the science Nobels , which two or three scientists often share . The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday , followed by the award for achievements in economics Monday .
French author Patrick Modiano wins the Nobel Prize for Literature . He is honored ` ` for the study of memory , '' says Nobel committee . Modiano is well known in France but has not achieved the same fame elsewhere . He has published some 30 books , often on the themes of memory , loss and identity .