The English translation of Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel, Annihilate, has been delayed by a change of publisher and will not be released until September 2024, we learned on Wednesday from its French publisher. Annihilate was released in original language in January 2022. It is available in multiple languages like Spanish (Aniquilación), Italian (Annientare), German (Vernichten), but still not in English.
This edition was delayed by a transaction for the rights in Great Britain and the Commonwealth (excluding Canada). Until then held by Vintage, they were acquired this time by Picador, indicates this house in a press release sent to AFP by Flammarion. The press release lists September 2024 as a release date, at the same time as the North American edition by Farrar, Straus
Also read: Annihilate by Michel Houellebecq, a flamboyant novel of desire, love and death
Michel Houellebecq is one of the most successful French authors abroad. Picador considers him “one of the greatest novelists in the world”, “enfant terrible and provocative”.
Houellebecq’s translator for Anniéantir is the Northern Irishman Shaun Whiteside. He translated the previous novel, Sérotonine, published in January 2019 in French, and in November of the same year in English. In French, Michel Houellebecq published a story in May entitled “A few months in my life, October 2022-March 2023”.