Submission

Michel Houellebecq · b. 1956 · France

Originally Soumission (French) · translated by Lorin Stein

Why it matters

A burned-out literature professor watches France elect an Islamist president and quietly, comfortably submits. Published the day of the Charlie Hebdo attack, its satire of exhausted secular liberalism ignited furious debate.

At a glance

Deadpan first-person prose; difficulty is in tracking irony rather than syntax.