Vincenzo Vega Books

NOVEMBER 24, 2004 The day of the tragedy. The end of a brotherhood. The Baltimore Boys. The Goldman Gang. That was what they called Marcus Goldman and his cousins Woody and Hillel. Three brilliant young men with dazzling futures ahead of them, before their kingdom crumbled beneath the weight of lies, jealousy and betrayal. For years, Marcus has struggled with the burdens of his past, but now he must attempt to banish his demons and tell the true and astonishing story of the Baltimore Boys. The stunning new novel from the author of the global bestseller, The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair Translated from the French by Alison Anderson

It’s 2022. Francois is bored. He’s a middle-aged lecturer at the Sorbonne and an expert on J.K. Huysmans, the famous nineteenth-century Decadent author. But Francois’s own decadence is considerably smaller in scale. He sleeps with his students, eats microwave dinners, rereads Huysmans, watches YouPorn. Meanwhile, it’s election season. And although Francois feels “about as political as a bath towel,” things are getting pretty interesting. In an alliance with the Socialists, France’s new Islamic party sweeps to power. Islamic law comes into force. Women are veiled, polygamy is encouraged, and Francois is offered an irresistible academic advancement—on condition that he convert to Islam. Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker has said of Submission that Michael Houellebecq is “not merely a satirist but—more unusually—a sincere satirist, genuinely saddened by the absurdities of history and the madnesses of mankind.” Houellebecq’s new book may be satirical and melancholic, but it is also hilarious, a comic masterpiece by one of France’s great novelists.

Set over three hours during one night in Manila, this novel intertwines three stories: the shady dealings of gangsters, the tautly and emotionally drawn tale of a Phillipino family and the violent lives of a gang of street kids, until their different lives collide in a shattering finale.