French author Patrick Modiano has won the 2014 Nobel Prize for literature, the BBC reports.
The Nobel Academy awarded the author “for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation”.
Presented by the Nobel Foundation, the award – which is 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.
A total 111 individuals have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature between 1901 and 2014.
Last year’s winner was Canadian author Alice Munro.
