Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio: the reading list

Who is Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, the little-known (internationally at least) Frenchman who today won the Nobel Prize for Literature? It seems he is a complex character and his writing reflects it.

Highlights of his work are difficult to pick out, says Beatrice Damamme-Gilbert, a Le Clezio expert from Birmingham University. To get some sort of understanding of an author who has just hit the $1.4m literary jackpot, potential readers should seek out the following:

Le Proces Verbal (The Interrogation). Written when le Clezio was just 23 years old and during a period when he was "really quite disturbed" says Damamme-Gilbert. Le Clezio's early work is especially challenging, even for his most avid readers.

Le Chercheur d'Or (The Gold-Digger). A fictionalised version of the life of one of le Clezio's ancestors. Much of the author's work concerns his heritage and the history of his family. Memory is also a major theme

in almost all of le Clezio's books.

Etoile Errante (Wandering Star). A book about a Jewish girl during the Nazi occupation of France and an equivalent character in Palestine. In many, but not all, of his books, le Clezio "writes on controversial and quite touchy political subjects".

Revolutions. A novel that ties together several violent periods of French history - including the French revolution and the 20th century Algerian war - with stories from the author's own life. "It's a very ambitious book," says Damamme-Gilbert.

Ourania. Le Clezio's most recent work describes a near utopian society in Mexico. The author still divides his time between France and New Mexico, where he lectures.

"People in the know, people who really like literature, value him a lot," says Damamme-Gilbert. "He's got a very vivid imagination and is a writer of some stature."

That may be true says David Platten of Leeds University, but generally speaking the Frenchman is "pretty dull". Perhaps mercifully, finding Le Clezio translated into English is almost as hard as reading him in French.