 Another time (1965), his mother sent Patrick to the father's apartment to demand a tardy child-support payment, and in response the father's girlfriend called the police.From his first novel – which has been awarded the Fénéon Prize and Roger Nimier Prize – , Modiano has written about "the pull of the past, the threat of disappearance, the blurring of moral boundaries, “the dark side of the soul.” "

The 2010 release of the German translation of "La Place de l'Étoile" won Modiano the German "Preis der SWR-Bestenliste" (Prize of the Southwest Radio Best-of List) from the Südwestrundfunk radio station, which hailed the book as a major post-Holocaust work.