Annihilation by Michel Houellebecq (translated by Giorgos Karampelas, Estia, 2022) takes place, as usual in his novels, in the near future, in this case from November 2026 to October 2027. During this period, there were three strange terrorist attacks. occurred: the first against a ship with containers, the second against a large Danish sperm bank and the third against a boat with migrants, resulting in the deaths of five hundred people. 2027 is the year of the presidential elections in France.

Paul Rezon (Reson, the right word, logic), the central character of the novel, a graduate of the famous School of Public Administration, works as a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the right hand of Minister Brino Ziz. He is married to Prudence, also a graduate of the same School, a financial inspector, a vegan and a member of a religious sect that, among other things, believes in reincarnation. They have not children. Their marriage is essentially broken, they just live together in the same house, in different rooms and with separate shelves in the refrigerator (“Certainly, sharing the refrigerator best symbolized the degeneration of his marriage,” p. 26). In general, there is a separation of the bed and the table.

At the very beginning of the novel, Paul’s father, Édouard Reason, a civil servant of the secret services, falls ill at the age of seventy-seven (p. 57 or seventy-four if he was born in 1952, p. 97). He suffers a massive stroke and falls into a coma. The event plays a decisive role in the development of events: it brings together three brothers and sisters (Paul, Cecile and Aurelian) who have not seen each other for many years, and causes a big change in their lives.

In the face of death, ours and ours, everything else (election campaigns, etc.) loses its meaning.

Cecile is a devout Catholic, simple, caring and kind. She is confident that her father will recover, for the simple reason that she asked God for it (p. 62). However, Catholicism is in deep crisis, Catholic families cannot pass on the faith to their children: one of the two daughters Cecile, PhD in Philology at the Sorbonne, works as an escort, that is, a luxurious prostitute, for 400 euros per hour (p. 360), as Paul learns while being her client. Cecile and her husband vote for Le Pen (p. 137). Aurelian works as an art restorer, tapestries, and is married to Indy, ten years his senior, a failed journalist who despises him. She did IVF with a black donor just to humiliate him (p. 313). “She used her child as a kind of billboard, a means of displaying the image that she wanted to pass off as passionate, open, cosmopolitan” (p. 185). His father’s illness brings Aurelian into contact with the black nurse’s assistant who takes care of him. Maryse from Benin, herself a faithful Catholic, but without puritanism. They fall in love and live in a happy love relationship. Aurelian “felt like a man, it was shockingly new” (p. 370) and learned from Maryse what he still did not know, “that sexuality can manifest itself with such simplicity, with such sweetness” (p. 374). The nurse is involved in her father’s illegal escape from the hospital, confesses her involvement and risks being fired and deported. Aurelian, whose “attachment to life was weak, always conditional […](p. 458), he considers himself guilty of this and kills himself. Paul during this family adventure began to reconnect with Predance, and then suddenly he was struck by aggressive oral cancer.

If we think about the characters of the novel one by one, we will notice that the good ones predominate, with the first and best women: Priance, Cecile and Madeleine. After all, the only true representative of Evil in the novel is Indy, evil and cunning. She will write an article about Edouard’s kidnapping to politically damage Brino Zizu, leading to her husband’s suicide and Maryse’s eventual return to Benin (p. 503).

During the course of the novel, Paul’s family is stricken with two serious illnesses and suicide. Evil comes and finds the heroes at their best, on the verge of happiness. Eduard Rezon lives in a small town with his second wife, Madeleine, who is deeply in love. Aurelian experiences romantic love for the first time in his life, and Paul is reunited with Priance. Aurelian and Paul, now living the joy of life, are forced to give it up with a bite in their mouth. Death is merciless and inexorable, it is always there and lies in wait (“You have a husband, father or son, you lived together that very morning, and for several hours, and sometimes even several minutes, you can lose him” p. 63), death, like a harlot, does not discern; she goes with everyone (pp. 64-65). This is true annihilation: severe illness and death, annihilation of individual existence in the world without waiting for eternity. In the face of death, ours and ours, everything else (election campaigns, etc.) loses its meaning. Paul ends up not voting in the election by crumpling up the envelope containing the invalid ballot and throwing it in the trash can (p. 522). Is this another manifestation of human egoism? We will continue. Until then, August 15th!