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Michel Houellebecq is a French novelist, poet and literary critic. His novels include the international bestseller Atomised and The Map and the Territory, which won the 2010 Prix Goncourt. He lives in France.

A NOTE ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

Lorin Stein is the editor of The Paris Review. He lives in New York.

Through all the years of my sad youth Huysmans remained a companion, a faithful friend; never once did I doubt him, never once was I tempted to drop him or take up another subject; then, one afternoon in June 2007, after waiting and putting it off as long as I could, even slightly longer than was allowed, I defended my dissertation, ‘Joris-Karl Huysmans: Out of the Tunnel’, before the jury of the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne. The next morning (or maybe that evening, I don’t remember: I spent the night of my defence alone and very drunk) I realised that part of my life, probably the best part, was behind me.

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