For lovers of Douglas Adams and Wes Anderson, there comes a book which turns the world upside-down, shakes it and describes what falls out. What connects a Special Agent, a Viking, a suicidal writer, a psychopathic doctor, an Icelandic volcano and a monkey named 'Spank'? More than you might think. And certainly more than they themselves know. Although a volcano can't know ... Or can it, when it is designed by Witherspoon and Smythe? (Actually it can't. I'm trying to work around the epistemic black hole that the last paragraph created. Work with me here.)