Book Review: Scare tactics

Michel Houellebecq's latest novel, Soumission, imagines a future in which the Muslim Brotherhood party rules France in a coalition with the Socialists.

It has now become difficult to disentangle the novel from the events that followed its publication. A cartoon that featured Houellebecq fantasising about converting to Islam was on the cover of Charlie Hebdo published on the day of the attack.

Houellebecq has written about Islam in the past, and because he was once taken to court - and acquitted - after calling it "the most stupid religion", it has been assumed that Soumission, which will be published in English in September, is fanning the flames of fundamentalism.

The narrator of Soumission ("Submission"), François, continues the tradition of the Houellebecquian hero made infamous by previous novels such as Atomised and Platform. He is solipsistic, disillusioned and excruciatingly cruel. François, a teacher of 19th-century French literature at the Sorbonne, is dismissive of everything, from women ("I've never been convinced it was a good idea for women to be able to vote") to his earnest Chinese students ("refrigeratingly serious").

The setting is Paris in 2022, and an election is imminent. Though François feels "about as politicised as a hand towel", he does admit that things are getting pretty interesting.

In the presidential election, the Front National gets the highest number of votes, and the Islamic party comes second, but neither of these is as strong on its own as the coalition that eventually results.

The Socialist Party unites with the Muslim Brotherhood and, nominally, saves France.

The one problem is education, which the Muslim Brotherhood insists must be entirely Islamic, must be entirely taught by Muslims, and must exclude most girls beyond primary school.

As soon as the Muslim president has come to power, François receives a letter forcefully requesting his early retirement - unless he converts to Islam. He agrees . In fact, Muslim rule is in line with his misogyny and extends his sexual fantasies.

If you were determined to link this fiction to reality, you might remember that Sharia law has already been introduced in Mali, a country that used to belong to the French.

You might realise that the rise of the far right and the resurrection of anti-Semitism in France are accurately described. Houellebecq doesn't picture his fictional Islamic fundamentalists doing anything worse than what they have already done.

Their actions are simply more systemic, more extensive, more accepted by the populace.

• 'Soumission' will be published in English by Heinemann in September