By Associated Press
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101108/ap_en_ot/eu_france_literary_prize

PARIS – The controversial best-selling author Michel Houellebecq has won France's most coveted literary prize — the Prix Goncourt — for his new novel, "La Carte et Le Territoire."
The novel tells of a solitary, misanthropic artist who becomes a critical darling and commercial success almost in spite of himself. It's equal parts murder mystery and a meditation on the decline of postindustrial France, depicted as a sort of Disneyland for Chinese and Russian tourists.
Houellebecq's previous novels courted controversy with explicit sex scenes and disparaging comments about women, minorities and Islam.
His new book — whose title translates as "The Map and The Territory" — hit French bookstores in September.