The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Extremely funny . . . inspired lunacy . . . [and] over much too soon.”—The Washington Post Book World

SOON TO BE A HULU SERIES • Now celebrating the pivotal 42nd anniversary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

It’s an ordinary Thursday morning for Arthur Dent . . . until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly after to make way for a new hyperspace express route, and Arthur’s best friend has just announced that he’s an alien.

After that, things get much, much worse.

With just a towel, a small yellow fish, and a book, Arthur has to navigate through a very hostile universe in the company of a gang of unreliable aliens. Luckily the fish is quite good at languages. And the book is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy . . . which helpfully has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large, friendly letters on its cover.

Douglas Adams’s mega-selling pop-culture classic sends logic into orbit, plays havoc with both time and physics, offers up pithy commentary on such things as ballpoint pens, potted plants, and digital watches . . . and, most important, reveals the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything.

Now, if you could only figure out the question. . . .

“"Lively, sharply satirical, brilliantly written . . . ranks with the best set pieces in Mark Twain." -- The Atlantic "Irresistible!" -- The Boston Globe "With droll wit, a keen eye for detail and heavy doses of insight . . . Adams makes us laugh until we cry." -- The San Diego Union-Tribune "One of the greatest achievements in comedy. A work of staggering genius." --David Walliams "Really entertaining and fun." --Michael Palin "Fizzing with ideas . . . brilliant." --Charlie Brooker "Weird and wonderful." --Eoin Colfer "It changed my whole life. It's literally out of this world." --Tom Baker”

“Lively, sharply satirical, brilliantly written . . . ranks with the best set pieces in Mark Twain.”—The Atlantic

“Irresistible!”—The Boston Globe

“With droll wit, a keen eye for detail and heavy doses of insight . . . Adams makes us laugh until we cry.”—The San Diego Union-Tribune

“One of the greatest achievements in comedy. A work of staggering genius.”—David Walliams

“Really entertaining and fun.”—Michael Palin

“Fizzing with ideas . . . brilliant.”—Charlie Brooker

“Weird and wonderful.”—Eoin Colfer

“It changed my whole life. It’s literally out of this world.”—Tom Baker

Douglas Adams was born in 1952 and created all the various and contradictory manifestations of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: radio, novels, TV, computer games, stage adaptations, comic book, and bath towel. He was born in Cambridge and lived with his wife and daughter in Islington, London, before moving to Santa Barbara, California, where he died suddenly in 2001.

Seconds before Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor. Together, this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by a galaxyful of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian (formerly Tricia McMillan), Zaphod's girlfriend, whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; and Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he's bought over the years. Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time in between wearing digital watches? For all the answers, stick your thumb to the stars!

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