Atomised

Michel Houellebecq is a poet essayist and novelist. He is the author of several novels including <i>The Map and the Territory</i> (winner of the Prix Goncourt) <i>Atomised</i> <i>Platform</i> <i>Whatever </i>and <i>Submission</i>. He was awarded the Legion d’Honneur in 2019. <p>Half-brothers Michel and Bruno have a mother in common but little else. <br><br>Michel is a molecular biologist a thinker and idealist a man with no erotic life to speak of and little in the way of human society. <br><br>Bruno by contrast is a libertine though more in theory than in practice his endless lust is all too rarely reciprocated. <br><br>Both are symptomatic members of our atomised society where religion has given way to shallow 'new age' philosophies and love to meaningless sexual connections. <br><br><i>Atomised</i> tells the stories of the two brothers but the real subject of the novel is the dismantling of contemporary society and its assumptions its political incorrectness and its caustic and penetrating asides on everything from anthropology to the problem pages of girls' magazines. A dissection of modern lives and loves. By turns funny acid infuriating didactic touching and visceral.</p> Very moving gloriously extravagantly filthy and very funny Compelling...wrenchingly terrible... Unhealthy and haunting rich and provocative <i>Atomised </i>astonishes both as a novel of ideas and as a portrait of a society A brave and rather magnificent book Sheer brilliance...totally mesmerising energising infuriating and moving... Compulsory reading A novel which hunts big game while others settle for shooting rabbits Destined to become a cult book...a genuine page-turner Bullying and brilliant... Atomised is nothing less than a road-rage map of our times An extraordinary voice Makes you re-examine your beliefs... This is a brave and rather magnificent book <p>Half-brothers Michel and Bruno have a mother in common but little else. <br><br>Michel is a molecular biologist a thinker and idealist a man with no erotic life to speak of and little in the way of human society. <br><br>Bruno by contrast is a libertine though more in theory than in practice his endless lust is all too rarely reciprocated. <br><br>Both are symptomatic members of our atomised society where religion has given way to shallow 'new age' philosophies and love to meaningless sexual connections. <br><br><i>Atomised</i> tells the stories of the two brothers but the real subject of the novel is the dismantling of contemporary society and its assumptions its political incorrectness and its caustic and penetrating asides on everything from anthropology to the problem pages of girls' magazines. A dissection of modern lives and loves. By turns funny acid infuriating didactic touching and visceral.</p>