The Nobel Academy described the novelist, whose work has often focused on the Nazi occupation of France, as "a Marcel Proust of our time".The award - presented to a living writer - is worth eight million kronor (£691,000).Previous winners include literary giants such as Rudyard Kipling, Toni Morrison and Ernest Hemingway.At a press conference in Paris, the publicity-shy Modiano expressed his surprise at the win and said he was keen to find out why he was chosen."I wasn't expecting it at all," he said. "It was like I was a bit detached from it all, as if a doppelganger with my name had won."Modiano beat bookies' favourites Japanese writer Haruki Murakami and Kenyan novelist, poet and playwright Ngugi wa Thiong'o. The last French writer to win the prize was Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio in 2008.The academy said the award was "for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation"."This is someone who has written many books that echo off each other... that are about memory, identity and aspiration," Peter Englund, the academy's permanent secretary said.Patrick Modiano has been a national literary treasure in France for decades. But up until now, he has also been one of the country's best-kept secrets. Only a handful of his 25-odd novels have been translated into English.One reason for this might be that Modiano's storylines are as slim as the books themselves. They usually centre on young men cast adrift among high-living crooks in 1960s Paris. There is a sense of threat, but little is explained.The plot, however, matters much less than the feelings evoked by his deceptively simple prose. Blurred memory plays a key role. Modiano's narrators try to make sense of half-remembered events from their youth, looking back through a glass darkly.The lack of clarity goes hand in hand with geographical precision - with each Paris location overlaid with layers of imperfect memories. The poetic character of Modiano's writing may explain why few have ventured to translate him so far. Hopefully the Nobel Prize will now give him the international recognition he deserves.(BBC)Bakudaily.Az