3,647 words
English original here
Michel Houellebecq
Submission: A Novel
Trans. Lorin Stein
London: Heinemann, 2015
Michel Houellebecq es uno de los novelistas más finos, de los actualmente vivos. Su novela más reciente, Sumisión, está ahora en inglés. Read more …
, has attracted enormous attention. The book portrays the coming to power of an Islamist president in France in 2022 and has predictably been condemned as Islamophobic. The timing of the Charlie Hebdo massacres – a few disgruntled French-born Muslims murdering left-liberal cartoonists and Jews – could not have been better in terms of boosting sales. Indeed, Soumission is already that rarest of things: a succès européen (rather than our usual pan-European cultural fare of Hollywood blockbusters and degenerate Anglo pop music). 
Houellebecq on Love
Translated by Guillaume Durocher
Translator’s Note: I discovered these reflections nestled between some pornographic scenes in Michel Houellebecq’s recently published novel, Sérotonine (Paris: Flammarion, 2019), pp. 70-72.
It is perhaps necessary at this point to provide a few clarifications on love, largely aimed at women, because women don’t really understand what love is for men. Read more …