Michel Houellebecq

CANCELLED!

12-09-2011
Author event Michel Houellebecq cancelled

The announced author visit of Michel Houellebecq to the Netherlands and Belgium has been cancelled. The author, who has been unreachable and untraceable for some time, did not show up. Houellebecq was scheduled to appear in Amsterdam, The Hague and Brussels between Monday 12 and Thursday 15 September, on the occasion of the Dutch publication of his novel La carte et le territoire (The Map and the Territory), which was awarded the Prix Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary prize.

Due to the author’s absence, his planned appearance at BorderKitchen has unfortunately also been cancelled.

Michel Houellebecq had recently published his long-awaited new novel La carte et le territoire. Three months later, it was awarded the Prix Goncourt, France’s most important literary prize. In the Netherlands, readers had to wait a little longer, but in May De kaart en het gebied (The Map and the Territory) was finally published.

Houellebecq made waves in 1998 with his sensational novel Les Particules élémentaires (Atomised), a sharp and dark diagnosis of liberal Western society. Later works include Plateforme (Platform) and La possibilité d'une île (The Possibility of an Island). In The Map and the Territory, Houellebecq describes the life of visual artist Jed Martin, who becomes famous for his photographs of Michelin road maps. Houellebecq himself also appears in the novel, in a less than flattering role.

Michel Houellebecq was scheduled to be interviewed at BorderKitchen in French, with Dutch translation. His regular translator Martin de Haan would have acted both as interviewer and interpreter.

Location: Korzo Theatre, Prinsestraat 42, The Hague. Start time: 8:00 PM.

SOLD OUT
You could sign up for the waiting list via info@borderkitchen.nl

“Houellebecq has done it again: delivering a novel that presents itself as well-written, true and intense. And exactly as he prefers it: above all, intense.” – De Groene Amsterdammer

“The Goncourt for Michel Houellebecq, not only because he should have had it long ago, but also because this is his best novel.” – Le Nouvel Observateur

La carte et le territoire is translated into Dutch by Martin de Haan.