Who, among you, deserves eternal life? Daniel is a highly successful stand-up comedian who has made a career out of playing outrageously on the prejudices of his public. But at the beginning of the twenty-first century, he has begun to detest laughter in particular and mankind in general. Despite this, Daniel is unable to stop himself believing in the possibility of love. A thousand years on, war, drought and earthquakes have decimated the earth and Daniel24 lives alone in a secure compound – his only companion, a cloned dog named Fox. Outside, the remnants of the human race roam in packs, while Daniel24 attempts to decipher his predecessor’s history. In a nightmarish vision of the implosion of the modern world, he, like his predecessor attempts to fathom the meaning of love, sex, suffering and regret.
The Possibility of an Island won the french literary award the Prix Interallié (2005)
Takes you by the throat and shakes you. A bracing mix of visionary Aldous Huxley, Evelyn Waugh at his cruellest, and ranting John Osborne, THE POSSIBILITY OF AN ISLAND is a charging bull in the china shop of modern fiction ― TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
THE POSSIBILITY OF AN ISLAND is above all an aesthetic achievement. For this, Houellebecq should win the Prix Goncourt that polemics and personalities have made so elusive ― SCOTSMAN
His deftly constructed novel is a bleak comment on contemporary society, at times funny, brutal and revolting ― THE ECONOMIST
An exhilarating writer….in a class of his own ― LITERARY REVIEW
There is no doubt that he is a writer who deserves the serious attention that he is now receiving ― THE TIMES
Provocative and satisfying fiction ― HERALD
The novel is essential reading for anyone concerned with the state of either contemporary fiction or the contemporary world ― DAILY MAIL
There are passages of irresistible black humour, savage condemnation and genuine (and surprising) sentiment ― INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
If you liked ATOMISED and PLATFORM, you’ll love THE POSSIBILITY OF AN ISLAND … the most talented of current French writers ― SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
It will sicken you, reduce you to laughter and stun you with its savage directness, but it will always leave you thinking ― SPAIN MAGAZINE
The first 300 pages of this novel prove that Houellebecq is one of the best novelists writing today ― INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
The book shows his main strength: caustic wit with a moral force that cuts through complacent assumptions ― SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Houellebecq keeps us listening, even when we know we should leave ― INDEPENDENT
Reading Houellebecq is like being caught up in a tropical storm: you are blown away by the ferocity of his imagination ― OBSERVER
Europe’s most inflammatory writer ― INDEPENDENT
Houellebecq keeps us listening, even when we know we should leave. ― THE INDEPENDENT
the book shows his main strength: caustic with with a moral force that cuts throug complacent assumptions. — Katie Owen ― SUNDAY TELEGRAPH