Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano has been translated into 36 languages, but in English, his books are hard to find. Several of his earlier works have been translated into English, but most are out of print.

A small publishing house in Boston, David R. Godine, has three of his books in print: two novels, “Missing Person” and “Honeymoon,” and a children’s book, “Catherine Certitude.” None is available in electronic versions and two were out of stock on Amazon Thursday afternoon. (Another book, “The Search Warrant,” is available in the U.K.)

Godine, it turns out, has a knack for spotting Nobel winners. The house also has published the 2008 laureate, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, another French author who was little-known in the U.S. before the Nobel.

Aaron Kerner, Godine’s editorial director, said Mr. Modiano has been “terribly overlooked” in the U.S.

“He hasn’t been read nearly enough,” Mr. Kerner said. “He’s an absolutely wonderful writer with sort of spare, beautiful works, very much concerned with the French past, particularly the Occupation and World War II.” More.

See: The Wall Street Journal

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