THE MOST IMPORTANT FRENCH BOOK OF THE YEAR ___________________ 'One cannot
be said to be keeping abreast of contemporary literature without reading
Houellebecq's work.' Karl Ove Knausgaard, New York Times Dissatisfied and
discontent, Florent-Claude Labrouste begrudgingly works as an engineer for
the Ministry of Agriculture, and is in a self-imposed dysfunctional
relationship with a younger woman. When he discovers her ongoing
infidelity, he decides to abandon his life in Paris and return to the
Normandy countryside of his youth. There he contemplates lost loves and
past happiness as he struggles to embed himself in a world that no longer
holds any joy for him. His only relief comes in the form of a pill - white,
oval, small. Captorix is a new brand of anti-depressant, recently released
for public consumption, which works by altering the brain's release of
serotonin. With social unrest intensifying around him, and his own
depression deepening, Florent-Claude turns to this new medication in the
hope that he will find something to live for. Written by one of the most
provocative and prophetic novelists of his generation, Serotonin is at once
a devastating story of solitude, longing and individual suffering, and a
powerful criticism of modern life.