French author Patrick Modiano wins Nobel Literature prize

French author Patrick Modiano has won the 2014 Nobel Prize for literature.

The Nobel Academy said the award was "for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation".

Previous winners include literary giants such as Rudyard Kipling, Toni Morrison and Ernest Hemingway.

Vincent Dowd says only a little is known about how the Swedish Academy picks the winner.