Soumission

About “Soumission”

It’s 2022, and François, a middle-aged lecturer at the New Sorbonne University, is an expert on J. K. Huysmans, a 19th-century novelist linked to the Decadent movement. He leads a life of quiet decadence, sleeping with students, eating microwave dinners, and watching pornography. In this year, France’s new Islamic party joins forces with the Socialists and wins the election. Islamic law is introduced, requiring women to wear veils and encouraging polygamy. François is given a chance for academic success if he converts to Islam. Submission, a 2015 novel by Michel Houellebecq, is a darkly comic exploration of these events. It has become a widely discussed and controversial work.