Bernard-Henri Lévy

Two of France’s best known and most controversial writers, Michel Houellebecq and Bernard-Henri Levy (pictured), have set the literary world gossiping over a book they have collaborated on which, according to insiders, contains attacks on many of the nation’s leading political and cultural figureheads.

Called Ennemis Publics, the book is a frank and spicy dialogue between Houellebecq, the author of Atomised, and Levy, a philosopher and telegenic human rights activist. Although the publishers of the book, Flammarion, are guarded about who is in the firing line, they have waged a highly successful “advertease” campaign to whip up interest. Even before the identity of the writers was known, bookshops placed orders for 100,000 copies, guaranteeing the tome best-selling status in France.

One rumour had it that the book would be a dialogue between Houellebecq and the First Lady, Carla Bruni. Another claimed it was between Houellebecq and his mother, who described him as a ‘petit con’ (little prick) in a book earlier this year. None of this proved true, but it worked its PR magic. In actual fact, the 336-page book, which is to to be published on 8 October, is an exchange of letters between Houellebecq, 52, and Levy, 60, in which they savage the reputations of anyone they fancy – and occasionally one another.

In one of his letters to Levy, the novelist writes: “Other people, perhaps, have been able to make love while completely sober. I don’t envy them. All I have ever been able to accomplish while completely sober is to do my accounts, or pack my bags.”

In a letter to Houellebecq, BHL writes: “I can give every possible and imaginable explanation of my work. All I do is worsen my reputation as a bourgeois swine who has no grasp of social realities and only pretends to be concerned about the world’s oppressed so as to make headlines.”

The correspondence between the two men, written between January and July this year, also covers literature, love, humour and childhood. There are said to be long passages in which the two men settle scores with the many French public figures they detest – believed to include President Sarkozy.