Michel Houellebecq

French author, born 1958. Started his career in 1991 with a book on Lovecraft (H. P. Lovecraft, contre le monde, contre la vie / H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life) and became famous in 1994 with his first novel Extension du domaine de la lutte / Whatever, followed in 1998 by Les Particules élémentaires / Atomised. Also published two collections of poems (La poursuite du bonheur / The Pursuit of Happiness [1992] ; Le sens du combat / The Meaning of the Fight [1996]) and two collections of chronicles and critical texts. In the spring 2000, he released his debut album (and the only one to this date), Presence humaine, where he sings a number of his poems to the music of Bertrand Burgalat.