Michel Houellebecq

Michel Houellebecq
Houellebecq in 2016
Houellebecq in 2016
BornMichel Thomas
(1956-02-26) 26 February 1956 (age 68)
Réunion, France
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • poet
  • filmmaker
Notable works
Notable awards
Spouse
  • Identity unknown
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1980, divorced)​
  • Marie-Pierre Gauthier
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1998; div. 2010)​
  • Qianyun Lysis Li
    ​
    (m. 2018)​
Children1

Michel Houellebecq (French pronunciation: [miʃɛl wɛlbɛk]; born Michel Thomas on 26 February 1956) is a French author of novels, poems and essays, as well as an occasional actor, filmmaker and singer. His first book was a biographical essay on the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Houellebecq published his first novel, Whatever, in 1994. His next novel, Atomised, published in 1998, brought him international fame as well as controversy. Platform followed in 2001. He has published several books of poetry, including The Art of Struggle in 1996.

An offhand remark about Islam during a publicity tour for his 2001 novel Platform led to Houellebecq being taken to court for inciting racial hatred (he was eventually cleared of all charges). He subsequently moved to Ireland for several years,[1] before moving back to France, where he currently resides.[2] He was described in 2015 as "France’s biggest literary export and, some say, greatest living writer."[3] In a 2017 DW article, he is dubbed the "undisputed star, and enfant terrible, of modern French literature".[4]

In 2010, he published The Map and the Territory, which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt. In 2015, his next novel, Submission, sparked another controversy for its depiction of Islam. He was also recently accused of plagiarism concerning Submission.[5][6] Annihilation was published in 2022.

  1. ^ The Sex Export the Independent on Sunday, 21 August 2005
  2. ^ "Michel Houellebecq assure que son nouveau livre n'est pas une "provocation" En savoir plus sur". Le Monde. 4 January 2015. Archived from the original on 4 January 2015. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  3. ^ Angelique Chrisafis. Michel Houellebecq: "Am I Islamophobic? Probably, yes" Archived 20 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine The Guardian, September 2015; accessed 6 November 2017
  4. ^ "A selection of France's best contemporary writers | DW | 11.10.2017". Deutsche Welle. 11 October 2017. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  5. ^ "El Hadji Diagola, écrivain franco-sénégalais, poursuit Houellebecq et ses éditeurs pour plagiat".
  6. ^ "El Hadji Diagola contre Michel Houellebecq au tribunal judiciaire de Paris – Jeune Afrique". 19 January 2022.