Patrick Modiano writes in French. In 2014 he was awarded Nobel Prize for literature. Ring roads is a novel on the neglected lives. Why the title Ring Roads? In the novel the author says the Ring Roads as a place where the city unloads its refuse and silt. The people who have no identity are often forced to drift to these ring roads.
The novel takes its flight from an old photograph. The background is Clos-Foucre, a bar on the country side of France in a village called Seine-et-Marne. There are three people in the photograph. Murreaille, Marcheret , Deyckecaire. The author uncovers his imagination to illustrate the lives of these people. Deyckcaire is his father, a refugee who has not got the citizenship. Murreaille is the editor of a tabloid in Paris. Marcheret was an army man returned from some of the French colonies. The bar attendant Maud Gallas is another character in the background of the photograph. The author was in search of his identity, an attempt to discover his father. The character of his father still remains elusive.
Seine-et-Marne is situated on the outskirts of Forest Mountainbleau. Murreaille purchases a country home there along with Marcheret. Deyckecaire being called Chalva is like a servant of Murraille who can be eliminated at any moment. The author reaches Seine-et-Marne and tries to save his father. But all turns out to be in vain.
The story revolves around the narrative of the author, his relationship with his father,how people sidelined in the society struggles for survival,the unscrupulous means adopted by tabloids to extract money from public figures by blackmailing them etc..