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Renowned French literary provocateur Michel Houellebecq is supposed to be on a book tour in the Netherlands and Belgium — but he hasn’t shown up, and no one seems to know where he is. Although his absence hasn’t been reported to the police, nobody involved with the tour has heard from the author, poet, and literary critic, whose novel La carte et le territoire won France’s prestigious Prix Goncourt last year. Piet Joostens, who organized the readings, told Bloomberg, “I wouldn’t panic yet… We have no concrete evidence that he is a missing person. Of course we are worried. It has happened before that he doesn’t answer e-mails, but it is rare for him not to show up to meet his public.” Sounds like a real joy to work with, right? In any case, we hope Houellebecq is merely acting like the mysterious, frequently exasperating rebel he’s famous for being and not in any real trouble. [via io9]