Michel Houellebecq, the author who has been assailed in his native France for writing a novel celebrating the sex industry in Thailand, has lived on Bere Island for the past year, unknown to most people there.
Houellebecq used his Co Cork island retreat - a former guest house which was offered for sale on the Internet - to write Plateforme, which has been denounced by the Guide du Routard, the respected French tourist guide organisation.
The novel appears to be a semi-autobiographical account of the ramblings of a character in Thailand as he seeks to gratify his sexual urges.
Although Bere islanders were aware that a writer had taken up residence on the island, no one suspected that he was writing his controversial new novel there until an extract appeared in Le Monde last week and was taken up by newspapers in Britain.
The author and his wife, Marie Pierre, paid £190,000 for the two-storey house overlooking Castletownbere Harbour, which stands on its own grounds on the island across from the primary school.
Houellebecq keeps to himself and remains a virtual stranger to the Bere Island community. His wife had come into the pub with friends "but I've never seen him since they arrived on the island", a staff member at the nearby public house said. "I think they like to keep a low profile."
According to Mr Colm Harrington, who operates the ferry between Castletownbere and the island, Houellebecq may have left his home prior to last weekend when news broke in the French press of his latest novel. His wife, who was entertaining a friend at their home - which has been renamed the White House - left for the mainland last Friday and has not returned since. News that the writer is living in their midst has caused considerable curiosity on Bere Island.
Asked for directions to his house on the island, one woman taking her baby for a stroll on a sunny afternoon said that she and a number of other islanders were looking forward to finding out for themselves what all the fuss was about.
Mr Harrington pointed out that most of the islanders were going about their business as usual and taking no notice.
"People have heard that he bought the house here on the island so as to write in peace and quiet.
"The general view is that he doesn't bother anyone and that he is entitled to his privacy," he added.