One of the most well-known novels by French writer Michel Houellebecq has been sparking steady interest among readers around the world for nearly two decades. The novel can hardly be called a story in the usual sense (and the author himself doesn’t consider himself a “storyteller”); the narrative seems woven from many threads. Here you have the eternal plot about love, signs of the real present (the show business, totalitarian sects), and a fantastic yet frighteningly convincing picture of the future, where there are neo-humans—direct cloned descendants of modern people—who look at the world with understanding, but without involvement; they don’t know pain or suffering, their lives are comfortable, but for some reason unbearable. This telebridge between the present and the future is rendered with such cinematic precision that it shocks and captivates, overturning established ideas about how the world and society work—possibly even blurring the line between reality and fiction.