Michel Houellebecq, Lanzarote, 2000

Houellebecq at first seems deliberately trite, offensive and careless, but this is only to show the shallow arrogance of his Belgian protagonist. A pointless solitary holiday in Lanzarote leads to an encounter with a Rael-like extraterrestrial cult plus superficial graphic group sex with lesbians, then an unexpected look into what can happen to a life that has experienced too much. The superficiality of Lanzarote’s narrator is quickly exposed, leaving him discomfited by more seismic sexual tensions that he glimpses elsewhere, a contrast mirrored directly in the geological surface of Lanzarote’s once volcanic landscape. Clever if, necessarily, very adult stuff.   PY

Dimitri Verhulst, Problemski Hotel, 2003

One word can sum up Problemski Hotel: stunning. A short novel about the lives of incarcerated asylum seekers before they escape across the channel from Belgium into England, Verhulst exposes the casual prejudices of just about everyone, being politically incorrect to the point of recklessness yet always remaining humane and heartfelt. This is writing that is sharp, unforced and totally true.   PY