Overview

Kurt Vonnegut's masterpiece, one of the very best anti-war novels ever written, a book both beloved and banned - now rejacketed with brilliant, witty new look for the Vonnegut backlist Read Kurt Vonnegut's powerful masterpiece, which is as timely now as when it was first published. 'An extraordinary success. A book to read and reread. He is a true artist' New York Times Book Review Billy Pilgrim - hapless barber's assistant, successful optometrist, alien abductee, senile widower and soldier - has become unstuck in time. Hiding in the basement of a slaughterhouse in Dresden, with the city and its inhabitants burning above him, he finds himself a survivor of one of the most deadly and destructive battles of the Second World War. But when, exactly? How did he get here? And how does he get out? Travel through time and space on the shoulders of Vonnegut himself. This is a book about war. Listen to what he has to say- it is of the utmost urgency. 'The great, urgent, passionate American writer of our century, who offers us a model of the kind of compassionate thinking that might yet save us from ourselves.' George Saunders

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9780099800200

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Reviews

Marvellous...the writing is pungent, the antics uproarious, the humour suitably black, the wit sharp as a hypodermic * Daily Telegraph * Mr Vonnegut knows a great deal about what is probably the largest massacre in modern history - the fire-bombing of Dresden in 1945. Slaughterhouse Five is a reaction to the event by one of our most gifted and incisive novelists. A work of keen literary artistry -- Joseph Heller, author of 'Catch-22' The individuality of Vonnegut's style is a curious yet perfect match for the pain of the emotional content. A humane, human book that always remains a work of art rather than biography, no matter how apparent the author's presence -- Kate Atkinson Unique...one of the writers who map our landscapes for us, who give names to the places we know best -- Doris Lessing Funny, satirical, compelling, outrageous, fanciful, mordant, fecund and at the bottom-line, simply stoned-out-of-its-mind * Los Angeles Times *

In this classic novel that still resonates today, Vonnegut introduces us to the hapless Billy Pilgrim, stuck in the misery of the Second World War, a tragi-comic hero belittled and abused by his soldier colleagues as they retreat behind enemy lines. Unarmed, in a daze of misery, hunger and exhaustion, Billy stumbles alongside the obnoxious Roland Weary as he relates his knowledge of torture methods. Just as it seems that Billy's ordeal can get no worse, he is captured by the Germans and force-marched to a prison camp. It is at this point that his brain decides to take a holiday and he becomes Billy Pilgrim, time traveller. As the theatre of war enacts its ghastly tableaux against a backdrop of brutality and death, Billy tumbles in and out of his life, as it was, as it is, as it will be. Billy sees himself as a child, a newly wed on honeymoon, the only survivor of a plane crash, and a zoological specimen on the planet Tralfamadore. War-time Billy is taken to Dresden, there to work as a POW, sleeping in 'Slaughterhouse 5' in a city unaware of its soon-to-be-notorious fate. Already unhinged by the diabolical acts of cruelty that mankind seems capable of inflicting on itself, he is witness to the destruction of Dresden before being sent home to resume life as normal. Billy continues to stumble through an existence he doesn't seem to want or enjoy, until the moment comes when he tell the world that death is merely another dimension - the aliens who kidnapped him have told him so. Vonnegut's deadly humour and caustic observations on a war he himself participated in reveal its lunacy, as humans become units of cruelty, driven only by the will to survive. Billy Pilgrim, helpless in a world he does not understand, is a powerful protagonist in this masterpiece of American writing. (Kirkus UK)

Marvellous...the writing is pungent, the antics uproarious, the wit as sharp as a hypodermic needle * Daily Telegraph * A work of keen literary artistry -- Joseph Heller The individuality of Vonnegut's style is a curious yet perfect match for the pain of the emotional content. A humane, human book that always remains a work of art rather than biography, no matter how apparent the author's presence -- Kate Atkinson A laughing prophet of doom * New York Times * Unique -- Doris Lessing

Marvellous...the writing is pungent, the antics uproarious, the wit as sharp as a hypodermic needle Daily Telegraph A work of keen literary artistry -- Joseph Heller The individuality of Vonnegut's style is a curious yet perfect match for the pain of the emotional content. A humane, human book that always remains a work of art rather than biography, no matter how apparent the author's presence -- Kate Atkinson A laughing prophet of doom New York Times Unique -- Doris Lessing

Marvellous...the writing is pungent, the antics uproarious, the wit as sharp as a hypodermic needle * Daily Telegraph * Mr Vonnegut knows a great deal about what is probably the largest massacre in modern history - the fire-bombing of Dresden in 1945. Slaughterhouse Five is a reaction to the event by one of our most gifted and incisive novelists. A work of keen literary artistry -- Joseph Heller, author of 'Catch-22' The individuality of Vonnegut's style is a curious yet perfect match for the pain of the emotional content. A humane, human book that always remains a work of art rather than biography, no matter how apparent the author's presence -- Kate Atkinson A laughing prophet of doom * New York Times * Unique...one of the writers who map our landscapes for us, who give names to the places we know best -- Doris Lessing

The supreme novel of an extraordinary year. -- John Sutherland * The Times * Marvellous...the writing is pungent, the antics uproarious, the wit as sharp as a hypodermic needle * Daily Telegraph * A work of keen literary artistry -- Joseph Heller The individuality of Vonnegut's style is a curious yet perfect match for the pain of the emotional content. A humane, human book that always remains a work of art rather than biography, no matter how apparent the author's presence -- Kate Atkinson A laughing prophet of doom * New York Times *

Marvellous...the writing is pungent, the antics uproarious, the humour suitably black, the wit sharp as a hypodermic * Daily Telegraph * Mr Vonnegut knows a great deal about what is probably the largest massacre in modern history - the fire-bombing of Dresden in 1945. Slaughterhouse Five is a reaction to the event by one of our most gifted and incisive novelists. A work of keen literary artistry -- Joseph Heller, author of 'Catch-22' The individuality of Vonnegut's style is a curious yet perfect match for the pain of the emotional content. A humane, human book that always remains a work of art rather than biography, no matter how apparent the author's presence -- Kate Atkinson Unique...one of the writers who map our landscapes for us, who give names to the places we know best -- Doris Lessing There are writers who create a lot of readers, and there are writers who create a lot of writers, and Vonnegut was both -- Jonathan Safran Foer

Author Information

Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis in 1922 and studied biochemistry at Cornell University. An army intelligence scout during the Second World War, he was captured by the Germans and witnessed the destruction of Dresden by Allied bombers, an experience which inspired his classic novel Slaughterhouse-Five. After the war he worked as a police reporter, an advertising copywriter and a public relations man for General Electric. His first novel Player Piano (1952) achieved underground success. Cat's Cradle (1963) was hailed by Graham Greene as 'one of the best novels of the year by one of the ablest living authors'. His eighth book, Slaughterhouse-Five was published in 1969 and was a literary and commercial success, and was made into a film in 1972. Vonnegut is the author of thirteen other novels, three collections of stories and five non-fiction books. Kurt Vonnegut died in 2007.

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