The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is the second book in Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy sequence, which he called a trilogy. It was first published by Pan Books as a paperback in 1980 and continues directly from the first volume.

Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox and Trillian are on the run in a stolen ship, and much of the novel is spent finding a place to eat. Among its episodes are a visit to the restaurant of the title, which sits at the end of time and serves dinner while the universe ends around it, and the account of two men who once ruled the galaxy and were exiled to a planet whose inhabitants do not want them.

Adams wrote the book from material developed for the radio series and the first novel, and its comedy depends on treating the largest possible events as administrative problems. It was followed by further volumes in the same sequence, and its best jokes depend on the reader having accepted the rules of the first book.