Put France’s literary enfant terrible together with Europe’s most combustible political talking point, and sparks were always going to fly.
Michel Houellebecq, whose tale of sex, mother-hatred and cloning Atomised was the French literary scandal of the Nineties, is turning his attention to “Islamisation”.
His new novel Soumission (Submission), will not be published until January 7 but has already triggered a flurry of accusations that he is pandering to the growing Islamophobia gripping France.
It is set in 2022 and imagines the country electing a Muslim president, who goes on to convert France to his vision of society.
In a twist, he is not only able to implement his programme - but it works. France becomes more positive about its future, and more prosperous too.
Houellebecq has already been accused of aligning himself with so-called neo-réactionnaire writers and intellectuals such as Eric Zemmour and Renaud Camus who argue that France’s national identity has been irreversibly diluted by mass immigration and the growth of Islam. » | Rory Mulholland, Paris | Saturday, January 03, 2015
