SEROTONIN

LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2020

A powerful criticism of modern life by one of the most provocative and prophetic writers of our age

Florent-Claude Labrouste is dying of sadness. Despised by his girlfriend and on the brink of career failure, his last hope for relief comes in the form of a newly available antidepressant that alters the brain's release of serotonin.

When he returns to the Normandy countryside in search of serenity, he instead finds a rural community left behind by globalisation and red-tape agricultural policies, with local farmers longing for an impossible return towhat they remember as a golden age.

'Despite its provocations, this is a novel of romantic and sorrowful ideas: Houellebecq as troubadour, singing lost loves' Rachel Kushner

Michel Houellebecq has good claim to be the most interesting novelist of our times. . . Exhilarating in its nihilism, often very funny and always enjoyable' Evening Standard

LUNGIT PENTRU PREMIUL INTERNATIONAL DE BOOKER 2020 O critica puternica a vietii moderne de catre unul dintre cei mai provocatori si profetici scriitori din epoca noastra Florent-Claude Labrouste moare de tristete. Dispretuit de iubita sa si pe punctul de a esua in cariera, ultima lui speranta de usurare vine sub forma unui nou antidepresiv disponibil care modifica eliberarea serotoninei de catre creier. Cand se intoarce in mediul rural din Normandia in cautare de seninatate, el gaseste in schimb un comunitate rurala lasata in urma de globalizare si politici agricole birocratice, fermierii locali dorind de o intoarcere imposibila pana la care isi amintesc ca o epoca de aur. ”In ciuda provocarilor sale, acesta este un roman de idei romantice si indurerate: Houellebecq ca trubadur, cantand pierdut dragoste 'Rachel Kushner Michel Houellebecq are pretentii bune de a fi cel mai interesant romancier din vremurile noastre.