Pierre Michon (born 28 March 1945, Châtelus-le-Marcheix, Creuse) is a French writer. His first novel, Small lives (1984), is widely regarded as a genuine masterpiece in contemporary French literature. He has won several prizes for Small lives and for The Origin of the World (1996) as well as for his body of work. His novels and stories have been translated into German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, Polish, Serbian, Czech, Norwegian, Estonian and English. He won the 2017 International Nonino Prize in Italy.
With an oeuvre consisting of a stunning confessional novel—Vies minuscules (1984)—and a series of Plutarch-like "lives" devoted to famous artists and poets, Michon commands respect as a sensitive author and gifted stylist who seeks to comprehend how we can make sense out of the irrepressible impulses and unavoidable failures that fill our lives. Whether he is charting the misfortunes of the lowly, portraying his own difficult rise from rural poverty and a broken family to the completion of his first book, or plunging into the destinies of Watteau, Goya, Rimbaud, or Van Gogh, Michon poignantly captures the essence of the compelling courses our lives take.
