120,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Kia kaha te reo Māori! πŸ’œ Celebrate Māori Language Week with us!

Whatever

By Michel Houellebecq
Series: Serpent's Tail Classics
0.0 (0 reviews)
3.57 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating. ( 20,671 ratings, 1,743 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Whatever by Michel Houellebecq is a provocative novel focusing on the life of a disillusioned computer programmer. Battling a feeling of disconnection, the protagonist navigates a mundane, monotonous existence. Through dark humour and sharp social criticism, the book explores themes of alienation and the search for meaning.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$4300

International Supplier

This title is in-stock with overseas suppliers. While it is not available locally, we fly books in weekly from the US and UK to our Auckland warehouse for immediate dispatch.

AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 2-3 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you enjoy satirical and philosophical explorations of modern life, examining themes of isolation and existential despair. Michel Houellebecq's sharp, often dark humour provides a thought-provoking look at the absurdity of contemporary human existence, making it intriguing for readers who appreciate deep, reflective narratives.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

The mischief-making enfant terrible of new-wave French fiction.

'The mischief-making enfant terrible of new-wave French fiction' Independent

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Just thirty, with a well-paid job, no love life, and a terrible attitude, the anti-hero of this grim, funny novel smokes four packs of cigarettes a day and writes weird animal stories in his spare time. A computer programmer by day, he is tolerably content, until he's packed off with a colleague β€” the sexually frustrated Raphael Tisserand β€” to train provincial civil servants in the use of a new computer system.

Whatever, Michel Houellebecq's first novel, was a smash hit in France, expressing the misanthropic voice of a generation. Like A Confederacy of Dunces, Houellebecq's bitter, sarcastic, and exasperated narrator vociferously expresses his frustration and disgust with the world.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Michel Houellebecq's Whatever is recognised for its dark humour and philosophical depth. Reviews highlight its mix of comedy and grim narrative details, capturing the disaffection of modern youth with precision. The book is noted for its potent blend of philosophical insight and narrative, offering a vividly pessimistic look into contemporary life under late capitalism.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781846687846

Publisher: Profile Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 05 May 2011

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Serpent's Tail

Edition: Main - Classic edition

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 14.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 119g

Pages: 160

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Michel Houellebecq Series: Serpent's Tail Classics

About the Author

Novelist and poet Michel Houellebecq was born in 1958, on the French island of Reunion. At the age of six, Michel was given over to the care of his paternal grandmother, a communist, whose family name he later adopted. His literary career began when, at twenty, he started to move in poetic circles in France. Whatever, Houellebecq's first novel, has been translated into several languages. Houellebecq's second collection of poems, Le sens du combat (The Meaning of the Fight), obtained the Prix Flore in 1996. In 1998, he received the prestigious Grand Prix National des Lettres Jeunes Talents for his literary work. He has also won the Prix Novembre (for Atomised). His first album, Presence Humaine, was released in 2000. He currently lives in Spain.

Also by Michel Houellebecq

View all
  • Atomised
    The gloriously moving and extravagantly filthy cult classic from the internationally bestselling author of Submission. Half-brothers Michel and Bruno have a mother in common but little else. Michel is a molecular biologist, a thinker and idealist, a man with no erotic life to speak of and little in the way of human society. Bruno, by contrast, is a libertine, though...
    By Michel Houellebecq
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Serotonin
    Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2020 A powerful criticism of modern life by one of the most provocative and prophetic writers of our age. Florent-Claude Labrouste is dying of sadness. Despised by his girlfriend and on the brink of career failure, his last hope for relief comes in the form of a newly available antidepressant that alters the brain's...
    By Michel Houellebecq
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Submission
    Submission is the highly-anticipated new novel from the internationally bestselling French writer Michel Houellebecq. As the 2022 French Presidential election looms, two candidates emerge as favourites: Marine Le Pen of the Front National, and the charismatic Muhammed Ben Abbes of the growing Muslim Fraternity. Forming a controversial alliance with the political left to block the Front National's alarming ascendency, Ben...
    By Michel Houellebecq
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2700
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Map and the Territory
    Part thriller, part satire, the critically acclaimed latest novel by the winner of the Prix Goncourt is quintessential Houellebecq and perhaps his best yet. Artist Jed Martin emerges from a ten-year hiatus with good news. It has nothing to do with his broken boiler, the approach of another lamentably awkward Christmas dinner with his father or the memory of his...
    By Michel Houellebecq
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Annihilation
    Annihilation was a Daily Express Book of the Year. 'The most important novelist to have been publishing in all of Europe over the past three decades' - The Sunday Times 'An extended meditation on human frailty and the lack of spirituality in the Western world... Houellebecq displays compassion and empathy, and a belief in the redemptive power of love' -...
    By Michel Houellebecq
    Paperback
    $2999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Interventions 2020
    The death of God in the West was the prelude to a metaphysical soap opera that continues to this day. Christianity’s masterstroke was to combine a fierce belief in the individual with the promise of eternal participation in the Absolute. When that dream evaporated, various attempts were made to offer the individual a minimum of being. The latest of these...
    By Michel Houellebecq
    Paperback
    $3599
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Interventions 2020
    The death of God in the West was the prelude to a metaphysical soap opera that continues to this day. Christianity’s masterstroke was to combine a fierce belief in the individual with the promise of eternal participation in the Absolute. When that dream evaporated, various attempts were made to offer the individual a minimum of being. The latest of these...
    By Michel Houellebecq
    Hardback
    $11099
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life
    Best-selling French novelist Michel Houellebecq pays tribute to the master of horror, H. P. Lovecraft. Part biographical sketch, part pronouncement on existence and literature, the best-selling French novelist Michel Houellebecq's H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life, was published in France in 1991 and is the first non-fiction text ever published by the author. Here, France's most famous contemporary...
    By Michel Houellebecq
    Hardback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Annihilation
    Annihilation
    'The most interesting novelist of our times' – Evening Standard 'The most important novelist to have been publishing in all of Europe over the past three decades' – The Sunday Times 'We have no one to match Houellebecq.' – The Daily Telegraph It is 2027. France is in a state of economic decline and moral decay. As the country plunges...
    By Michel Houellebecq
    Paperback
    $3799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • In the Presence of Schopenhauer
    In the Presence of Schopenhauer
    The work of Michel Houellebecq – one of the most widely read and controversial novelists of our time – is marked by the thought of Schopenhauer. When Houellebecq came across a copy of Schopenhauer's Aphorisms in a library in his mid-twenties, he was bowled over by it and he hunted down a copy of his major philosophical work, The World...
    By Michel Houellebecq
    Paperback
    $2399
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The Possibility of an Island
    Who, among you, deserves eternal life? The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq revolves around Daniel, a highly successful stand-up comedian who has made a career out of playing outrageously on the prejudices of his public. However, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, he has begun to detest laughter in particular and mankind in general. Despite this, Daniel...
    By Michel Houellebecq
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from General Fiction

View all
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people β€” but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    By Alison Espach
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Lizzy's Pick Lizzy's Pick
    Yesteryear
    A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE β€” Nita Prose WICKEDLY FUNNY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND FRIGHTENINGLY PERCEPTIVE β€” Abigail Dean INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE β€” Ashley Audrain SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS β€” Clare Mackintosh The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale β€” Hannah Deitch My name was Natalie Heller...
    By Caro Claire Burke
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Fourth Wing
    THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NUMBER ONE GLOBAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON! DON'T MISS OUT ON THE SERIES THAT EVERYONE CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT: 'This book contains an addictive, drug-like essence that will make you relinquish all responsibility until the very last word. Do not say I didn't warn you' Glamour 'I didn't sleep, I didn't eat, and when I finished, I...
    By Rebecca Yarros
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Signed Bookplate
    Shirl's Pick Shirl's Pick
    Taipei Story
    TAIPEI STORY is the electrifying new novel by bestselling literary phenomenon Rebecca F. Kuang, a profoundly moving coming-of-age story that explores first love, second language and final goodbyes – all set against the backdrop of one unforgettable summer in Taipei. Yale student Lily Chen arrives in Taipei hungry: for family, for culture, for connection. But her summer of discovery quickly...
    By R.F. Kuang
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Iron Flame
    The instant number one Sunday Times bestseller and thrilling sequel to the global phenomenon, Fourth Wing! DON'T BE THE LAST TO DISCOVER THE SERIES THAT EVERYONE CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT: 'Yarros is the true inheritor of Harry Potter and inspires Hunger Games levels of devotion' Guardian 'Fear not, levels of fighting, rebelliousness and all-round sexiness are still sky-high' Daily Mail...
    By Rebecca Yarros
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Carl's Doomsday Scenario
    Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They've already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Hardback
    $4699
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses
    The first instalment of the GLOBAL PHENOMENON and TikTok sensation, from multi-million selling and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas. Maas has established herself as a fantasy fiction titan – Time Harry Potter magic, Taylor Swift sass, Fifty Shades-level athleticism – The Sunday Times With bits of Buffy, Game of Thrones and Outlander, this is a glorious series...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Dylan's Pick Dylan's Pick
    Theo of Golden
    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...
    By Allen Levi
    Paperback
    $2899
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Carl's Doomsday Scenario
    New Release
    Carl's Doomsday Scenario
    Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl seriesβ€”now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition. Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They've already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever feline...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl
    The apocalypse will be televised! Welcome to the first book in the wildly popular and addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman-now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition! You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what's worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Gate of the Feral Gods
    The fourth book in the explosive LitRPG Dungeon Crawler Carl series New Achievement! Total, Utter Failure.You failed a quest less than five minutes after you received it. Now that's talent. Surviving in a multilevel dungeon that also happens to be the set of the galaxy's most watched game show has taught Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Hardback
    $6000
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Court of Silver Flames
    The latest instalment of the GLOBAL PHENOMENON, romantic fantasy epic and TikTok sensation, ACOTAR. From multi-million and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas. Maas has established herself as a fantasy fiction titan - Time Think Game of Thrones meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a drizzle of E.L. James – Telegraph Spiced with slick plotting and atmospheric world-building...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

General Fiction lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!

The Latest at Book Hero

View all