Enigmatic American author Thomas Pynchon's classic novel, Gravity's Rainbow. Set primarily in Europe at the end of World War II, the novel centers on the design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military. In particular, it features the quest undertaken by several characters to uncover the secret of a mysterious device, the Schwarzgerät ("black device"), which is slated to be installed in a rocket with the serial number "00000". Traversing a wide range of knowledge, Gravity's Rainbow crosses boundaries between high and low culture, between literary propriety and profanity, and between science and speculative metaphysics.