The 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature went to the French novelist "for the art of memory" with which he has "uncovered the lifeworld of the occupation". Although the 69yearold writer is a very popular literary figure in France, he is little known elsewhere. So who is this Patrick Modiano, why does his memory have such an influence upon him, and what exactly has he uncovered? Modiano was born in a suburb of Paris right after World War IIended in Europe in July 1945.His  father was a JewishItalian businessman who met his Belgian actress mother during the Nazi occupation of Paris. As The New Yorker magazine put it, Europeans born in 1945 share a condition--They escaped the war, but "not the taint  of the war". Modiano's life has been influenced by Nazi Germany's occupation during the war, and his family's connections to it.According to New Yorkbased newspaper Forward, his father survived the war dishonorably.When Paris' Jews were brought together to be sent to concentration camps, the businessman did not join them but spent the time making money from deals with Nazis on the black market. "The novelist has a duty to record the lives of the people who have disappeared, the people who were made to disappear," French writer Clemence Boulouque, also an expert in Jewish studies, told The New Yorker magazine. In his more than three dozen novels, Modiano has returned again and again to the same themes:Jewishness, the Nazi occupation, and loss of identity.His characters collect pieces of old evidence, handwriting, photographs, police files, and newspaper cuttings. His most admired novel,Missing Person, is a good example.It's the story about a detective who has lost his memory.He tries to find out who he really is by following his own steps through history. Although Modiano's win is a surprise outside France, people are celebrating in his home country.Modiano is the 15th French literature winner.After Le Clezio's 2008 win, it seemed unlikely that there would be another so soon. Modiano won the Nobel Prize because of   _  .
his extraordinary character his unique way of recording history his characters' unusual experiences his special connections to the war