Modiano, Patrick

Reluctant to talk about himself in the beginning of his career, Patrick Modiano claimed that he was born in 1947. It has now been established that he was born as Jean Patrick Modiano on July 30, 1945, in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt. His father was a Jewish tradesman and his mother was a Belgian actress. Patrick Modiano attended Lycée Henry-IV where he was taught geometry by the famous author Raymond Queneau, who was also a friend of his mother’s. This encounter was crucial to the young Modiano who published his first novel, the highly acclaimed La Place de l'Étoile (La place de l'Étoile) , in 1968 and has been a full-time writer ever since. He rarely appears in public, and as a result his life is surrounded by a certain amount of mystery and myth-making.