Catherine Certitude

The only children's story by 2014's winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Patrick Modiano, illustrated in full colour by celebrated artist Jean-Jacques Sempé.

A classic French story from Nobel Prize-winner Patrick Modiano and celebrated illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé. Beautifully illustrated, this is a love letter to Paris, ballet and childhood for fans of The Little Prince, Le Petit Nicholas and Madeline.

Catherine lives with her gentle father, Georges Certitude, who runs a shipping business in Paris with a failed poet named Casterade. Father and daughter share the simple pleasures of daily life: sitting in the church square, walking to school, going to her ballet class every Thursday afternoon. But just why did Georges change his name to Certitude? What kind of trouble with the law did Casterade rescue him from? And why did Catherine's ballerina mother leave to return to New York?

Translated by William Rodarmor

About the Author

Patrick Modiano is a celebrated French novelist, author of numerous books for adults and children. His work has been translated into over 30 languages. Notable awards include the Grand Prix du Roman de l’Académie Française, the Prix Goncourt and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature. In 2014 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ‘for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies.’

About the Illustrator

Jean-Jacques Sempé is one of the world’s most successful illustrators and cartoonists. His work includes numerous covers of the New Yorker magazine, full-page cartoons in Paris Match, the illustrations of the classic children’s book character, Nicholas, and many albums of cartoons and graphic novels. He lives in Paris.