Annihilation

Houellebecq (Submission) wraps a ponderous family drama around a plodding near-future political thriller. It’s November 2026 and Paris has been rocked by a series of mysterious cyberattacks and disturbing deepfake videos, including an apparent decapitation of France’s finance minister, Bruno Juge. Paul Raison, 49, works closely with Bruno, and becomes privy to his scheme to be France’s next president following a “post-democracy” constitutional change. When Paul’s father, Édouard, a retired French intelligence agent, has a stroke and slips into a coma, Paul rushes from Paris to his hometown along with his devoutly Catholic sister, Cécile, and their younger brother, Aurélien. Paul, whose marriage to Prudence, a Wiccan, has been sexless and moribund for years, grapples with family squabbles and conspires with his siblings to kidnap Édouard from the hospital over concerns about his care. On the eve of an election where the far-right candidate is performing surprisingly well against Bruno’s party, a terror attack on a migrant boat upends French politics. There’s some stimulating philosophizing about the limits of representative government, and critics of religion will appreciate the excoriating depictions of Cécile’s and Prudence’s beliefs, but Houellebecq neglects to tie together or even resolve the novel’s main threads. This ambitious outing topples under its own weight. (Oct.)