Mankind, scientists agree, is a tiny and insignificant anomaly in the impersonal vastness of the universe. But what would that universe be like if we were not here to say something about it? Without human beings there would be no words or language. Would there still be numbers, if there were no one to count them? Or scientific laws, if there were no words or numbers in which to express them? Would the universe even be vast, without the very fact of our tininess and insignificance to give it scale?The paradox is what Michael Frayn calls the 'the world's oldest mystery.' He shows how fleeting our contacts with the world around us are. The world is what we make of it. In which case, though, what are we?Conceptual questions of this nature have been the driving force behind many of Michael Frayn's novels and plays. In the book, with peerless wit and astonishing lucidity, he turns to confront them head-on....

DW jacket spine faded. Page ends have foxing and some fading.