Map & the Territory

The most celebrated and controversial French novelist of our time now delivers his magnum opus—about art and money, love and friendship and death, fathers and sons.

 

The Map and the Territory is the story of an artist, Jed Martin, and his family and lovers and friends, the arc of his entire history rendered with sharp humor and powerful compassion. His earliest photographs, of countless industrial objects, were followed by a surprisingly successful series featuring Michelin road maps, which also happened to bring him the love of his life, Olga, a beautiful Russian working—for a time—in Paris. But global fame and fortune arrive when he turns to painting and produces a host of portraits that capture a wide range of professions, from the commonplace (the owner of a local bar) to the autobiographical (his father, an accomplished architect) and from the celebrated (Bill Gates and Steve Jobs Discussing the Future of Information Technology) to the literary (a writer named Houellebecq, with whom he develops an unusually close relationship).

 

Then, while his aging father (his only living relative) flirts with oblivion, a police inspector seeks Martin’s help in solving an unspeakably gruesome crime—events that prove profoundly unsettling. Even so, now growing old himself, Jed Martin somehow discovers serenity and manages to add another startling chapter to his artistic legacy, a deeply moving conclusion to this saga of hopes and losses and dreams.

By the most celebrated and controversial French novelist of our time, this Goncourt-winning masterpiece--about art and money, love and friendship and death, fathers and sons--will bring Michel Houellebecq the broad readership in America that he has long enjoyed internationally.

 

The Map and the Territory is the story of an artist, Jed Martin, and his family and lovers and friends, the arc of his entire lifetime told with sharp humor and powerful compassion. His first photographs feature Michelin road maps (hence the title), and global success arrives with his series on professions: portraits of various personalities, including a writer named Houellebecq, captured at their work. Not long afterward, Jed helps a police inspector solve a heinous crime that leaves lasting marks on everyone involved. But after burying his father and growing old himself, Jed will also discover serenity and add another chapter to his artistic legacy, a deeply moving conclusion to this saga of hopes and losses and dreams.

MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ is the author of The Elementary Particles, Platform, The Possibility of an Island, and, with Bernard-Henri Lévy, Public Enemies.

 

Translated from the French by Gavin Bowd