French · b. 1940
J.M.G. Le Clézio won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature as "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization." The French author's novels move between continents and cultures, from Brittany to Mexico to the Indian Ocean. Le Clézio writes about displacement, indigenous peoples, and the violence of colonization with lyric intensity. His work spans five decades and dozens of volumes.