Annihilation

A Daily Express Book of the Year

'A must-read' – Evening Standard

'Houellebecq’s new book proves he is one of the world’s greatest novelists' – The Daily Telegraph

'The most important novelist to have been publishing in all of Europe over the past three decades' – The Sunday Times

As France is in the midst of a closely fought presidential campaign, the government falls victim to a series of mysterious and unsettling cyberattacks. Paul Raison is caught up in the state’s scrambled response, working as an advisor to the finance minister and with family connections to the DGSI, the French counterterrorism agency.

But Paul’s private life is as strained as the nation is troubled. His marriage has collapsed, he’s drifted from his siblings, and their father has been hospitalised following a stroke. In telling Paul’s story, Annihilation moves seamlessly between tense espionage thriller and poignant family drama. The result is an extraordinary and moving meditation on loving, caring and dying.

'Annihilation leans neither towards hope nor despair, but towards a transcendent serenity' The Guardian

Translated from the French by Shaun Whiteside

Annihilation was a #1 Livres Hebdo bestseller in France w/c 10/01/2022, and a #1 Spiegel bestseller in Germany w/c 24/01/2022