 He heard the news via a mobile phone call from his daughter while walking through Paris, "just next to the Jardin du Luxembourg" where he lives.The Nobel was unexpected, even to those in the Anglo-American world most familiar with his work.The puzzlement is likely related to limited knowledge of Modiano in the English-speaking world; despite his prolific output, fewer than a dozen of his works had been translated into English, and several of those were out of print before the Academy's announcement.