Mathematics professor Wala Kitu is the world's foremost expert in nothing. Which makes him the perfect asset for John Milton Bradley Sills, a billionaire who wants to be a Bond villain, by stealing a box of nothing from Fort Knox and using it to make nothing happen to the world. With his trusty one-legged dog Trigo by his side (well, in a Baby Bjorn carrier anyway), Dr. Kitu takes Sills' money and embarks on the plan to steal nothing, slowly realizing along the way that nothing can cause a whole lot of havoc to the world, and he may be the only one who can keep nothing from happening.
If that paragraph confused you, imagine reading 262 pages like that. This wasn't the weirdest book I've read (that would be Tacky Goblin) but it certainly is near the top of the weird list. The overuse of the word "nothing," the globe-trotting plot mixed with page-length mathematical/philosophical paragraphs, Trigo talking to Dr. Kitu in his dreams...the whole thing feels like it was co-written by Joseph Heller and Jean-Paul Sartre. It's too clever by half, and Everett takes plenty of opportunities to give us a wink and let us know that.
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