At the Existentialist Cafe begins in Germany after the first world war, with Edmund Husserl and his pupil Martin Heidegger.

Among a panoply of riches, Bakewell offers fascinating anecdotes, including the heroics involved in saving Husserl’s papers during the war.

He would eventually call Husserl ludicrous; Husserl, upon reading a Heidegger manuscript multiple times, would wind up with marginalia like “?” “!” and “?!”