Modiano has such a deft way of describing a place or setting a scene that his words conjure up the promise of hidden worlds.Tobias Grey, Financial Times
A nimble translation by Mark Polizzotti. . . . Modiano masters the familiar tropes of the roman noir to build intrigue and suspense, before subverting the genres conventions.Marcus Hijkoop, The Telegraph
Modiano is one of Frances greatest living writers. . . . He imbues his taut, slim novels with the thrill of chasing a mystery.Jeanne Bonner, Boston Globe
Ballerina is structured like memory itself, and feels true to life. . . . [ A] beautiful work of serendipity.Frank Lawton, The Spectator
[ A] slim, melancholic, and soaring novel.Judith von Sternburg, Frankfurter Rundschau
Praise for the French Edition: The most ethereal, slender, and crystal-clear of Patrick Modianos beautiful novels.Jérôme Garcin, LObs In this novel full of delicate melancholy, dance and writing finally become one.Fabienne Lemahieu, La Croix The memories are hazy and the charm works. Irresistibly. We would like to wander the streets of Paris endlessly with Patrick Modiano.Marianne Payot, LExpress A superb novel. . . . Through the repetition of a sound, a light, the name of a character or a street, Patrick Modiano plunges us into a waking dream-state. He invites us, without saying it, to an adventure akin to mysticism. The past no longer exists: everything, under his pen, becomes eternal present.Julien Burri, Le Temps A book by Modiano . . . you read it in a kind of incandescence. Its an event. And then, it vanishes: like a mirage. It eludes explanation, description, its just something you feel. Its pure sensibility. Like music. Its hard to talk about music. We stammer. . . . He is not the author of the past. He is the author of the eternal present that we feel within us.Christine Angot, France Inter
