French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio wins Nobel prize for literature

10 October 2008

French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio has won the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2008 for his works, including adventurous novels, essays and children's books. The award carries a cash prize of 10 million Swedish crown ($1.4 million).

The Swedish Academy, which decides the winner of the coveted award called  Le Clézio  an ''author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization''.

"His works have a cosmopolitan character. Frenchman, yes, but more so a traveller, a citizen of the world, a nomad," Horace Engdahl, permanent secretary of the Academy, said while announcing the award.

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio was born on 13 April 1940, in Nice, but both parents had strong family connections with the former French colony, Mauritius (conquered by the British in 1810).

At the age of eight, Le Clézio and his family moved to Nigeria, where his father had been stationed as a doctor during the Second World War.

During the month-long voyage to Nigeria, he began his literary career with two books, 'Un long voyage' and 'Oradi Noir', which even contained a list of ''forthcoming books.''