Paperback, 336 pages
English language
Published Jan. 3, 2003 by Pan Books.
The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time is a posthumous collection of previously published and unpublished material by Douglas Adams. It consists largely of essays, interviews, and newspaper/magazine columns about technology and life experiences, but its major selling point is the inclusion of the incomplete novel on which Adams was working at the time of his death, The Salmon of Doubt (from which the collection gets its title, a reference to the Irish myth of the Salmon of Knowledge). English editions of the book were published in the United States and UK in May 2002, exactly one year after the author's death.
Both halves of the book were a treat, the second half had me laughing in places, and its abrupt end has echoed yet again, how unfathomable of a loss we sustained with Douglas Adams's passing.
Dialogue with the taxi driver en route to Heathrow about the perspectives and deep understanding of nuance by experts is a fine outtake that I can remember straight away.
I'm very happy that I read it after most of his other works. Was I surprised when I learned that D.N.A. loved to hang out in Santa Fe? Not as much as to learn that back in the day there was snow in the desert.
