French novelist Patrick Modiano is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, adding to the University of Nebraska Press backlist of Nobel Prize winners.
Modiano is the author of “Out of the Dark,” which was translated by UNL professor Jordan Stump and published by UNP, which the New York Times Book Review called “suspenseful and contemplative.”
Stump said “Out of the Dark” is sad, dreamy, funny, elusive, and a love story that’s mostly about loss.
“He’s an extraordinary, entirely sui generis writer, and has been since the late ’60s,” Stump said. “This prize is long overdue. I couldn’t be happier.”
UNP published the first English translation of “Out of the Dark” in 1998.
“We are so proud that the latest Nobel Laureate Patrick Modiano, is the third Nebraska author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in the last six years,” said Donna Shear, director of UNP. “This speaks to the enduring value and importance of our books – not just to Nebraskans but to the entire world.”
UNP’s other Nobel prize–winning authors include Herta Muller (“Nadirs,” 1999) and J.M.G. Le Clezio (“Onitsha,” 1997; “The Round and Other Cold Hard Facts,” 2002; and “Mondo and Other Stories,” 2011).
Stump, professor of modern languages and literatures, joined UNL in 1992. He is a distinguished scholar on the French writer Raymond Queneau and is recognized as the leading U.S. authority on the author. Stump has translated more than 20 novels and was awarded the French-American Foundation’s Translation Prize in 2001.
