"Houellebecq captures precisely the cynical disillusionment of disaffected youth."--Booklist "This boy needs serious therapy. He may be beyond help."--The Washington Post Just thirty, with a well-paid job, depression and no love life, the narrator and anti-hero par excellence of this grim, funny, and clever novel smokes four packs of cigarettes a day and writes weird animal stories in his spare time. A painfully realistic portrayal of the vanishing freedom of a world governed by science and by the empty rituals of daily life. Michel Houellebecq is a multi-award-winning French author. He currently lives in Spain.