Writer, traveler, Nobel Prize winner

SARAH LYALL; The New York Times Published: October 10th, 2008 12:30 AM LONDON – French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, whose work reflects a seemingly insatiable restlessness and sense of wonder about other places and other cultures, won the 2008 Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday. In its citation, the Swedish Academy praised Le Clezio, 68, as the “author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization.” Le Clezio’s work defies easy characterization, but in more than 40 essays, novels and children’s books, he has written of exile and self-discovery, of cultural dislocation and globalization, of the clash between modern civilization and traditional cultures. Having lived and taught in many parts of the world, he writes as fluently about North... [read full story]