'Vonnegut looked the world straight in the eye and never flinched' J. G. BallardThis bitterly funny Cold War satire on the end of the world expresses our deepest fears of Armageddon, and has become a counter-culture classic. 'A satirist with a heart, a moralist with a whoopee cushion' Jay McInerney'The closest thing we had to a Voltaire' Tom Wolfe'The time to read Vonnegut is just when you begin to suspect that the world is not what it appears to be. He is not only entertaining, he is electrocuting' The New York Times

Kurt Vonnegut (1922 - 2007) was born in Indianapolis, USA. During the Second World War he was a prisoner in Germany and present at the bombing of Dresden, an experience he recounted in his famous novel Slaughterhouse Five (1969). His first novel, Piano Player, was published in 1951. This was followed by a considerable outlay of work, including the novels The Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle, Jailbird, Deadeye Dick, Galapagos and Hocus Pocus. He is widely considered to be one of the most important American writers of his generation.