Annihilation

by Michel Houellebecq

Picador Annihilation ABISBOOK Picador.

Paperback

About the author

Michel Houellebecq (born Michel Thomas), born 26 February 1958 (birth certificate) or 1956 on the French island of Réunion, is a controversial and award-winning French novelist. To admirers he is a writer in the tradition of literary provocation that reaches back to the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire; to detractors he is a peddler, who writes vulgar sleazy literature to shock. His works though, particularly Atomised, have received high praise from the French literary intelligentsia, with generally positive international critical response, Having written poetry and a biography of the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, he brought out his first novel Extension du domaine de la lutte in 1994. Les particules élémentaires followed in 1998 and Plateforme, in 2001. After a disastrous publicity tour for this book, which led to his being taken to court for inciting racial hatred, he went to Ireland to write. He currently resides in France, where he has been described as "France’s biggest literary export and, some say, greatest living writer". In 2010 he published La Carte et le Territoire (published the same year in English as The Map and the Territory) which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt; and, in 2015, Submission.

Reviews

[Russell King · Rating 2 out of 5]

This translation from the French offered so much- a modern political thriller blended with complex family relationships - but ended delivering little satisfaction and no suspense. It trudged its way through detail and back story never reaching a climax. The translation felt very clunky and overwritten and I feel sure it must have read far better in the original version given some of the accolades it received. 2 stars purely for some of the interesting insights into French politics and culture.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest after reading 70% of this book I was thinking to myself, what is the point of the whole political story…. So unlike Michels other books. I trudged on and I would say that it was worth it. He touched on a topic at the end that I am going through with a family member and it was pretty raw. Good work Michel , you have earnt yourself a good rest!

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Satisfyingly bleak and dark. Houellebecq manages to capture the Zeitgeist with unerring precision and wrings the last drop of meaning from it. A wonderful novel.