Michel Houellebecq's rise to world fame began a quarter of a century ago with the release of the novel Elementary Particles. This was followed by the planetary bestsellers “Platform”, “The Possibility of the Island”, “Humility”, “Serotonin”, “Destroy”, the Goncourt Prize and the Order of the Legion of Honor. At the center of the sensational novel is the fate of two brothers. Both, each in their own way, persistently seek happiness in the world around them, which is obviously not created for happiness. One of them, a biologist, makes an assumption about the possibility of fundamental changes in human genes, as a result of which a new type of “happy” people should appear. Houellebecq allowed these thinking beings, not subject to human weaknesses and delusions, to judge the lives of our contemporaries and managed to do what few others have managed: he really shocked the public. The novel was nominated for the Goncourt Prize, but did not receive it, but received a kind of “ anti-Goncourt" - the November Prize - and was recognized by the authoritative Lire magazine as the Best Book of the Year. Published in a new translation by Maria Zonina.