Michel Houellebecq, whose novels deal with themes like sado-masochism, molecular biology and cloning, has gone missing according to his publisher. Houellebecq, who also wrote a biography of H.P. Lovecraft, was scheduled to appear for a reading tour in the Netherlands and Belgium, but he never showed up.

Piet Joostens, who organized Houellebecq's reading tour, 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.

Fingers crossed that he's okay. [via SF Gate]