Timequake

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.

"Utterly original...capable of moving from irony to lament within a sentence" Guardian "Reading Timequake... I feel privileged to have spent several hours in the company of a most genial, affable and upbeat soul indeed...a wise, winning and utterly charming concoction of fiction, commentary and autobiography" Literary Review "Timequake is sweet, wild and cock-eyed... Vonnegut has always had a true comic ear... A beautifully fastidious writer, utterly original" Guardian "Fascinating digressions, epigrams and memories, vitalised by Vonnegut;s irrepressible intelligence and comic imagination, creating a movingly intimate work" Harpers & Queen "Highly entertaining... The portraits of Vonnegut's first wife, brother and sister are beautiful, sharp, critical, loving" New York Times Book Review