In brief: The Possibility of an Island tells of Daniel over a thousand years. Daniel 1 is a disillusioned middle-aged comedian finding that time is rapidly catching up with him. A thousand years in the future Daniel 24 is isolated in a secure compound with his dog Fox. As Daniel 24 completes the story of Daniel 1, Houellebecq takes us on an exploration of philosophy, comedy, ageing, love, sex and death, leading us to a post-apocalyptic new world and a kind of freedom with Daniel 25.

In detail: The Possibility of an Island sees author Michel Houellebecq return to the themes that obsess him. His ‘almost now’ character Daniel 1 struggles with the ageing of his body and the alienation of his mind. He has found fame through his vitriolic humour, and has come to hate almost everything about twenty-first-century society. Daniel 24 is living a millennium away and is completing the story of Daniel 1. His struggle to understand a life so removed from his own serves to illustrate the very points that Houellebecq wants us to consider.

Daniel 1 has wealth and fame. He attacks all in his stage act, and explores the seedier side of the media in his film work. He is constantly pushing the boundaries of acceptability in much the same way as his creator Houellebecq. The net result of all this vitriol is Daniel 1’s hatred of society, people, even laughter itself. Everything has become grotesque, horrific almost. The central theme of the book is ageing, and Daniel 1 is in his forties but seems older. He is embroiled in the very centre of youth-obsessed society, and cannot cope with the loss of his own youth. His love for the beautiful Isabelle fades as she ages, and he becomes a voyeur of young flesh. The only constant he can find in his life is the unconditional love he receives from their dog Fox. Sexually obsessed, he is excluded because he is ‘old’. When he becomes involved with the embodiment of youthful sexual abandon, Esther, he is constantly reminded of the transience of happiness, and the inevitability of his abandonment. He has moved from love with no sexual fulfilment, to loveless sexual Nirvana.

Daniel 1 becomes involved with a religious sect known as the Elohimites, who believe that our ancestors were aliens. Their belief is that eternal life can be achieved through cloning, and their resources are devoted to the scientific research that will eventually achieve this goal. The suicide of their leader, and the massive news coverage of the appearance of his clone, ensure the spiralling popularity of the religion. However, Daniel 1 knows that the leader was in fact murdered by a sexually jealous rival, and the clone is his natural son. Daniel 1 deposits his and Fox's DNA with the sect, thus ensuring their immortality, before his final slide into lonely depression and eventual death. Daniel24 tells us of the passing of Daniel 1, and the passing of his society. Daniel 24 lives in a secure compound in the post-apocalyptic future. All our fears have come true, and we have destroyed ourselves. Only bands of savages roam the outside world, which Daniel 24 watches from his place of safety. When Daniel 24 dies, and his new clone Daniel 25 appears, a desire to escape this self-induced captivity appears with him, and he steps away from the enclosure for the first time in a thousand years.

About the author

Michel Houellebecq is the bestselling author of Atomised, Platform, Lanzarote and Whatever. He was born in 1958 on the French island of Reunion and raised by his grandmother from the age of six. Always a controversial figure, he was tried in 2002 for calling Islam ‘the most stupid religion’. He is a poet, essayist and rap artist, and currently lives in County Cork.

For discussion

• ‘If man laughs, if he is the only one, in the animal kingdom, to exhibit this atrocious facial deformation, it is also the case that he is the only one . . . to have attained the supreme and infernal stage of cruelty.’ Do you believe that humour is always cruel?
• Daniel 24 notes that laughter is no longer possible in his condition of absolute solitude. Do you need company to laugh?
• ‘To increase desires to an unbearable level whilst making the fulfilment of them more and more inaccessible: this was the single principle upon which Western society was based.’ How far do you agree with Daniel 1?
• ‘Speech, which was basically designed for controversy and disagreement, was still scarred by its warlike origins. Speech destroys, separates. . .’ Or does speech heal and bring together? What do you think?
• ‘It is good to distrust doctrines preaching fraternity.’ Daniel 1 has more time for ex-royal societies than ex-communist ones; do you think that ex-communist countries are more brutal?
• Why do you think that Houellebecq gives us such specific information on the cars in the novel? Why such precise details of the various models?
• Daniel 1 is in his forties, but he seems much older. Why do you think this is?
• ‘One always ends up dying of love, or rather of the absence of love, it’s inevitably fatal.’ Does Daniel 1 die due to the absence of love?
• ‘I had never been really sincere, supposing that is possible.’ Are there examples of Daniel 1’s sincerity in the novel? Is it possible to be really sincere?
• ‘Life, fundamentally, is not comical.’ The UK tradition is that life is fundamentally comical; who do you side with?
• ‘Change in itself was apparently, in their eyes, a value.’ How far do you agree with Daniel 24’s comment? Is change always good or bad?
• ‘The West was just happy to take the lead and scout out the road ahead, as it had been doing since the end of the Middle Ages.’ Is Houellebecq edging on to dangerous ground here? As a product of the West, does he fail to understand the East?

Suggested further reading

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis