It was not easy to meet with Michel Houellebecq. After a quick initial acceptance, the process of scheduling an appointment dragged on. He had retreated after the uproar surrounding his allegedly Islamophobic statements in a conversation with Michel Onfray and the scandal that erupted after he was filmed having sexual intercourse with two young Dutch women for an artistic project. Both affairs weighed heavily on him, and he decided to wait for the publication of his diary Quelques mois dans ma vie (A Few Months in My Life) before opening up to the press again. When we finally met, we spent a solid five hours together on the terrace of Brasserie Le Coche. Michel Houellebecq was in the mood for conversation even after the exhausting double interview that Ute Cohen from the Tagespost had conducted with him and me.
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