Le Clézio Wins the Nobel
Many congratulations to J.M.G. Le Clézio, whose first four novels were published by Hamish Hamilton in the 1960s, who has been named by the Swedish Academy as the winner of its 2008 award in Literature. The academy praised Le Clézio, 68, as “an author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization.” He has published more than 30 novels, essays, story collections and translations. We are preparing a new edition of his classic first novel The Interrogation, acclaimed as the most stunning French debut since the death of Camus, for publication at the end of next month, just ahead of Le Clézio’s Nobel acceptance speech.
“We live in a troubled era in which we are bombarded by a chaos of ideas and images,” Le Clézio said at a press conference announcing the award. “The role of literature today is perhaps to echo this chaos.”