His real breakthrough as a novelist came with 1980's desert, whose tale of a lost culture in the North African desert and a Europe seen through the eyes of immigrants won him a French Academy prize.

作为一个小说家，le Clezio真正的突破是1980年的《沙漠》(Desert)，小说讲述北非沙漠一种失落的文化和一个从移民眼里所看到的欧洲，为他赢得法国学院奖。