Description

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A stunning political thriller from the author of Serotonin and Submission about faith and family, love and mortality, social upheaval and political controversy.

In Michel Houellebecq's Annihilation, it is 2027 and France is in a state of economic decline and moral decay. Unemployment, rural poverty, and income inequality have reached unprecedented levels. As the country plunges into a closely fought presidential campaign, the French state falls victim to a series of mysterious and unsettling cyberattacks. A video posted on the internet depicts the guillotining of Finance Minister Bruno Juge.

As an adviser to Minister Juge, 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 French counterterrorism agency. Paul’s personal life is as troubled and as atomized as that of the nation: his marriage has become strained, while his ties with his siblings are distant. But when Édouard suffers a stroke, Paul has an opportunity to repair his relationship with them, as they determine to free their father from the medical center where he is wasting away.

About the Author

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Michel Houellebecq is a French novelist, poet, and literary critic. His novels include the international bestseller The Elementary Particles and The Map and the Territory, which won the 2010 Prix Goncourt. He lives in France.

Shaun Whiteside is a Northern Irish translator of French, Dutch, German, and Italian literature. He has translated many novels, including Manituana and Altai by Wu Ming, The Weekend by Bernhard Schlink, and Magdalene the Sinner by Lilian Faschinger, which won him the Schlegel-Tieck Prize for German Translation in 1997.