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|title=The Map and the Territory

|sort=Map and the Territory

|publisher=Vintage Books

|date=June 2012

|website=

|video=

|summary=A satire on the world of modern art, a novel about coming to terms with one's mortality, a post-modern confusion of author and character, a classy who-dunnit, this book is at once all and perhaps none of those. Houellebecq takes us through an erudite switchback ride of contemporary fiction which constantly surprises and delights.

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Jed Martin, initially a photographer and later painter, has a singular take on the world and his craft. This novel takes him from obscurity as a reclusive student to fame as the doyenne of the contemporary art scene and in this journey we see exposed both the underlying values but in many ways the essential emptiness of the art world. He is 'taken up', feted and courted by critics and patrons, by those who know nothing but monetary value, and Houellebecq doesn't let any opportunity for a sharp gibe at galleries, art critics and agents go past. The key to Jed's fame is ironically his complete anonymity, and Houellebecq’s creation of the catarrh dribbling agent Marylin who manages Jed’s ‘outing’ is one of the classics of modern satire.