From Powells.com
Our favorite books of 2020-2021.
Staff Pick
My favorite book of all time celebrates its 42nd anniversary with a brand-new hardcover edition featuring highly imaginative illustrations. Arthur Dent wakes up to the most eventful Thursday of his life when a fleet of flying saucers arrives to demolish Earth to build a hyperspace bypass. Unbeknownst to him his best friend is an alien, and the two escape the destruction and embark on a wacky adventure that eventually spans five books. The answers to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything lie within the pages of this wholly remarkable book by the late and missed Douglas Adams. Recommended By Joseph P., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
This beautifully illustrated edition of the New York Times bestselling classic celebrates the 42nd anniversary of the original publication — with all-new art by award-winning illustrator Chris Riddell.
SOON TO BE A HULU SERIES - "An astonishing comic writer." —Neil Gaiman
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...
Review
"One of the greatest achievements in comedy. A work of staggering genius." David Walliams
Review
"Really entertaining and fun." Michael Palin
Review
"Fizzing with ideas... brilliant." Charlie Brooker
Review
"Weird and wonderful." Eoin Colfer
Review
"It changed my whole life. It's literally out of this world." Tom Baker
About the Author
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.
Chris Riddell, the 2015-2017 UK Children's Laureate, is an accomplished artist and the political cartoonist for the Observer. He has enjoyed great acclaim for his books for children. He has won a number of major prizes, including the 2001, 2004, and 2016 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medals. His book Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse won the Costa Children's Book Award 2014. Riddell has been honored with an OBE in recognition of his illustration and charity work. He lives in Brighton with his family.