Graphic Novelist Jiro Taniguchi, Adored in France, has Died

Scene from Walking Man

Last weekend, one of France’s most celebrated graphic novelists passed away. You might be surprised to learn that he was Japanese. Indeed, Jiro Taniguchi was “knighted” as a chevalier in France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2011. While hailed in the press as a manga author, Taniguchi’s style was…

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The Puzzling Mind of Patrick Modiano

Patrick Modiano, 2014

Last year, when Patrick Modiano won the Nobel Prize in literature, I had never heard of him.  It’s not surprising.  None of my friends, many of whom who are far more well-read than I, had heard of him either.  As it turns out, not many of his works had been translated…

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