Patrick Modiano accepts Nobel prize, confident of literature’s future

In his acceptance speech, novelist says he is convinced the writers of the future ‘will safeguard the succession’

Patrick Modiano, who won the Nobel prize for literature this autumn, has stated his conviction that tomorrow’s novelists “will safeguard the succession [of literature] just as every generation has done since Homer”.

Speaking as he accepted the 8m kroner (£710,000) award, the French novelist appeared at odds with writers such as Will Self and Tim Parks who earlier this year predicted the end of the literary novel, Parks blaming the “state of constant distraction we live in”.

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