“To annihilate”, the eighth novel by Michel Houellebecq, arrived on the shelves on Friday and seems set to get off to a flying start after having already aroused a myriad of comments and criticisms, often laudatory, sometimes acerbic.
This long fiction (736 pages) anticipates the years 2026 and 2027 when “France [est] in decline “but the bourgeois elites are not doing so badly.
The most influential French writer in the world is not the one who sells the most books in his country. But Flammarion bet on a first considerable edition of 300,000 copies, against 400,000 in September for the national champion Guillaume Musso.
Proof of its success beyond borders: the Italian (“Annientare”), German (“Vernichten”) and Greek translations appear between Friday and Tuesday. The English will wait until the second half of the year.
Michel Houellebecq, who cultivates an image of a reactionary depressive, himself made fun of his success in thesingle interview which he granted on the occasion of this publication, to Le Monde at the end of December.
“I write to get applause. Not for the money but to be loved, admired”. And to compare his job to prostitution: “We are happy to please”.
Provocations of this ilk are not lacking in “Annihilate”. Between misogynistic, xenophobic remarks, stings against contemporary cultural and spiritual mediocrity and contempt for the poor, the unidentified Houellebecquien narrator sends his usual share of bitterness.
The long-awaited release should start the year well for booksellers, while the previous one ended very strongly.
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