Half-brothers Michel & Bruno have a mother in common but little else Michel is a molecular biologist a thinker & idealist a man with no erotic life to speak of & little in the way of human society Bruno by contrast is a libertine though more in theory than in practice his endless lust is all too rarely reciprocated Both are symptomatic members of our atomised society where religion has given way to shallow 'new age' philosophies & love to meaningless sexual connections Atomised tells the stories of the two brothers but the real subject of the novel is the dismantling of contemporary society & its assumptions its political incorrectness & its caustic & penetrating asides on everything from anthropology to the problem pages of girls' magazines A dissection of modern lives & loves By turns funny acid infuriating didactic touching & visceral