The Map and the Territory

Description

Part thriller, part satire, the critically acclaimed latest novel by the winner of the Prix Goncourt is quintessential Houellebecq and perhaps his best yet. Artist Jed Martin emerges from a ten-year hiatus with good news. It has nothing to do with his broken boiler, the approach of another lamentably awkward Christmas dinner with his father or the memory of his doomed love affair with the beautiful Olga. It is that, for his new exhibition, he has secured the involvement of none other than celebrated novelist Michel Houellebecq. The exhibition brings Jed new levels of global fame. But, his boiler is still broken, his ailing father flirts with oblivion and, worst of all, he is contacted by an inspector requiring his help in solving an unspeakable, atrocious and gruesome crime, involving none other than celebrated novelist Michel Houellebecq... Shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2013.

Michel Houellebecq is a poet, essayist and novelist. He is the author of several novels including The Map and the Territory (winner of the Prix Goncourt), Atomised, Platform, Whatever and Submission. He was awarded the Legion d'Honneur in 2019.

A delicious exercise in satire and self-parody... His best ever * Daily Telegraph * The outlaw of French letters returns with an acerbic riff on art and celebrity... witty, wildly erudite * The Times * A dark master of invention... From the very first paragraph of this brilliant novel, the reader can be in no doubt that they're in the blisteringly bleak, darkly inventive grand massif that is Houellebeqc land * Evening Standard * This book, so beautifully written, so inspiriting for all its pessimism, is the new novel I have loved best this year. We have not his equal -- David Sexton * Spectator * Impressive... Beguiling... He is a true original * Observer *