Praise for The Map and the Territory
Winner of the 2010 Prix Goncourt
"A serious reflection on art, death, and contemporary society,
The Map and the Territory is a tour de force."–
The Los Angeles Review of Books "Powerful. . . . [A] singular novel. . . . Archly sarcastic, cheerily pedantic, willfully brutal." –
The New York Times Book Review "An ingenious and engaging composite of künstlerroman and police procedural; a novel of ideas; and an authorial self-reflection." -
The Boston Globe "All novelists everywhere have benefited from [Houellebecq's] audacity. . . . his temerity has recharged the form and reminded people what the novel can do." –
The Sunday Times "Funny, astonishing and authoritative. . . . This is the brilliant and controversial French writer's most intellectually ambitious book.." –
The Guardian
"Beautifully, accurately translated . . . . If ever there was a novelist for our globally dysfunctional times it's Michel Houellebecq. . . . Long cast aside as the bad boy of books, [his] latest novel has seen him brought in from the cold, and embraced by the literary establishment for what he's always been - not much short of a genius." –
The Mirror "One of the most important facts about Michel Houellebecq . . . is that he is a first-rate prose stylist. . . . Teasing and entertaining. . . . A page turner." –
Literary Review
"Houellebecq's bewitching journey on the river of art to the cave of death and decay is a tale of eviscerating insight, caustic humor, troubling beauty, and haunting provocation." -
Booklist "[Houellebecq is] a trenchant, sharp-tongued social commentator."–
Bookforum "Very likely his best [book] ever, a serious novel about aging and death that also employs its author's trademark lugubrious wit towards some delicious exercises in satire and self-parody. . . . Challenging, mature and highly intelligent." –
The Daily Telegraph "A dark master of invention. . . . In a world of copycatting and fakery, Michel Houellebecq is an exceptional writer and a stand-out original." –
Evening Standard "An astonishing writer. . . .
The Map and the Territory is funny, shocking, brutal and unbearably poignant. . . . Sublime." –
Scotland on Sunday
