"In this inventive and affecting novel, an octogenerian book collector named Mr. Mee discovers the Internet with life-changing results.".

"Told, in turns, from the points of view of the endearing, utterly guileless Mr. Mee, two eighteenth-century French philosophers, and a middle-aged university professor, Andrew Crumey's book concerns the creation and mysterious disappearance of Rosier's Encyclopaedia, a potentially explosive text written more than two hundred years ago that purportedly disproves the existence of the universe. When Mr.

Mee comes across a reference to the Xanthics, an obsolete sect that maintained unorthodox beliefs about fire, his hunt for more information compels him to try locating a copy of the singular encyclopedia. Technologically ignorant, Mr. Mee is at last persuaded by his addled housekeeper to conduct a modern search for the book on the Internet. But instead of finding additional clues about Rosier's Encyclopaedia, Mr. Mee stumbles upon an image of a naked woman reading from an intriguing text.".

"Alternating among the three stories, Andrew Crumey takes us closer to the truth about Rosier's Encyclopaedia and the secrets it contains. At times funny, often thought-provoking, and completely engaging, Mr. Mee is Crumey's most rewarding novel to date."--BOOK JACKET.