Atomised

After reading two restrained novels from northern Europe that moved at a microscopic pace in addressing microscopic, interior issues, Michel Houellebecq's Atomised arrives as a full-force gale of filth, humor, science, sociology, and psychology. The author's audacity in tackling everything from quantum physics to the sexual revolution in telling the story of two half-brothers -- one a scientist, the other a failed hedonist -- is rare in a world of cautious introspection and irony. Here, happily, is a novelist bold enough to provoke fights, and hatred.