# French provocateur Michel Houellebecq + Olga Tokarczuk's health resort horror

An episode of [The Bookshelf](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/499762704), 20 Sep 2024, 55 min.

Audio: https://mediacore-live-production.akamaized.net/audio/02/24/Z/vv.mp3

Novels from France, Poland and India – with politics, sanatoriums, automata and horror in the mix too. Kate and Cassie read French writer (and provocateur) Michel Houellebecq’s Annihilation (but can they get to the end of the book? There’s the question); while Polish reader and publicist Anna O’Grady joins them to discuss Nobel Prize winning writer Olga Tokarczuk’s The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story; and academic, novelist and memoirist Kári Gislason joins them to review Tania James’ Loot. BOOKS Michel Houellebecq, Annihilation, Picador Olga Tokarczuk, The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story, Text Tania James, Loot, Harvill Secker GUESTS Anna O’Grady, Publicity Director, Simon & Schuster. Born in Poland, both her parents and grandparents were connected with the Polish publishing industry Kári Gislason, Professor in Creative Writing & Literary Studies, Queensland University of Technology. His books include The Promise of Iceland, the novel The Sorrow Stone and Saga Land (co-authored with Richard Fidler). His latest is the memoir Running with Pirates OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDThomas Mann, The Magic MountainSamantha Harvey, OrbitalCarys Davis, ClearJennifer Croft, The Extinction of Irena ReyDebra Dank, We Come With This PlaceTegan Bennett Daylight, The DetailsGerald Durrell, My Family and Other AnimalsKarl Over Knausgaard, My Struggle seriesAnna Jacobson, How to Knit a Human CREDITS • Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullagh • Producer, Kate Evans + Sarah Corbett • Sound engineer, Harvey O'Sullivan + Simon Branthwaite • Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

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