Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel, about a man who converts to Islam, was published on the very day of the Charlie Hebdo murders. Some believe the novel holds an uncomfortable lesson for contemporary Catholics Michel Houellebecq, controversial French author, has recently published a novel which is, you might say, a reflection on the condition of post-Christian France told through the story of one man. The narrator of Soumission (“Submission”), due to be published in English later this year, is François, a literary professor whose life’s work is a study of the novels of another French writer, J.K. Huysmans (1848-1907). The narrative is driven by the contrast between François and the thinly disguised autobiographical hero of four of Huysmans’ lat