Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clzio, recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature, was born to Mauritian parents in 1940, in Nice. At age eight the family moved to Nigeria, and on the long voyage Le Clzio began his authorial career with two short novels and a prospectus of forthcoming titles. Returning to Nice at age ten, he was awarded a Bachelor's Degree from Institut d'tudes Littraires and a Doctorate from the University of Aix-en-Provence. Le Clzio is the author of more than thirty adult and children's titles, including his breakthrough 1980 novel, The Desert, and The Prospector.