Mother Night

‘Black satire of the highest polish’ Guardian

Whilst awaiting trial for war crimes in an Israeli prison, Howard W. Can a black or white verdict ever be reached in a world that’s a gazillion shades of grey?

‘After Vonnegut, everything else seems a bit tame’ Spectator

Vonnegut's chilling early masterpiece

Mother Night is not one of his most famous books, but it's one of the best

A brilliant wacky ideas-monger

Everyone should read Vonnegut

A cool writer, at once throwaway and passionate and very funny

One of the master alchemists of modern American fiction

A laughing prophet of doom

Vonnegut saw the worst excesses of humanity during the bombing of Dresden, but then spent the rest of his life writing with a mixture of exasperation and hope about the foibles of humanity.

One of the best living American writers

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.