Annihilation by Michel Houellebecq

Annihilation by Michel Houellebecq

A Daily Express Best Book of the Year

'An extended meditation on human frailty and the lack of spirituality in the Western world . . . Houellebecq displays compassion and empathy, and a belief in the redemptive power of love.' – New Statesman

'The most important novelist to have been publishing in all of Europe over the past three decades' – The Sunday Times

It is 2027. France is in a state of economic decline and moral decay.

As the country plunges into a closely-fought presidential campaign, the French state falls victim to a series of mysterious and unsettling cyberattacks. The sophisticated nature of the attacks leaves the best computer scientists at the DGSI – the French counter-terrorism agency – scrambling for answers.

An advisor to the country’s Finance Minister, Paul Raison is close to the heart of government. His wife Prudence is a Treasury official, while his father Édouard, now retired, has spent his career working for the DGSI. When Édouard has a stroke, his children have an opportunity to repair their strained relationships, as they determine to free their father from the medical centre where he is wasting away.

Michel Houellebecq’s Annihilation reveals new sides to his writing, adding compassion and tenderness to the emotions of rage and irony that have powered both him and his earlier works to international fame.

'We have no one to match Houellebecq.' – The Daily Telegraph

Translated from the French by Shaun Whiteside

_{Annihilation was a #1 Livres Hebdo bestseller in France w/c 10/01/2022, and a #1 Spiegel bestseller in Germany w/c 24/01/2022}

The most interesting novelist of our times * Evening Standard *
Michel Houellebecq’s new book proves he is one of the world’s greatest novelists. . He writes superbly . . . In England . . . we have no one, male or female, to match Houellebecq -- Simon Heffer, The Daily Telegraph
Surely the most important novelist to have been publishing not only in France but in all of Europe over the past three decades. -- David Sexton, The Sunday Times
It is hard to think of any writer in the English-speaking world equivalent to the cultural and political phenomenon that is the French novelist and provocateur Michel Houellebecq. * New Statesman *
Since the start of his literary career, Michel Houellebecq has been viewed in France as a prodigy whom his readers and critics both love hating and hate loving. As well as a bestselling novelist, he has become a social phenomenon: a rock star, a freak, a visionary genius, a political agitator, even, for some, a prophet. * The Times Literary Supplement *

Michel Houellebecq is a novelist, poet and essayist, as well as an occasional actor, filmmaker and singer. Acclaimed both in his native France and worldwide, his novels include Atomised, Platform, The Map and the Territory and Submission.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781035026395
Title	Annihilation
Author	Michel Houellebecq
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Pan Macmillan
Year published	2024-09-19
Number of pages	544
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.