The Black Notebook

Never before has Modiano produced a novel as lyrical as this ... the Baroque excess and violence of his earlier works has given way to a more pared-down, modest style that is both intricately wrought and magnificently fluid, sustained by pure poetry

1960's Paris, a mysterious girl, a group of shady characters, danger ... Modiano's folklore is set out from the beginning of The Black Notebook. And sheer magic follows once more

One can open this novel at any page, as if flicking through a collection of prose poems ... the smallest passage is enough to transport its reader. A rare, undefinable pleasure

Modiano takes up his struggle with memory again, resuscitating people and places in one magnificent, impressionistic, tracking shot

Modiano's characters are deliberately elusive, his settings, by contrast, scrupulously and atmospherically drawn

A compelling meditation on identity and memory, and an evocative portrait of [Paris]