St John Karp is an ornamental hermit who likes to live near exciting things, so he can not go to them. He has an undying love for the unusual, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, and toast. He spends his time writing about himself in the third person and trying to understand the milk aisle at the supermarket, often after one too many bottles of Château de Bauchery. Quake City is his third novel.