Slaughterhouse-Five

Slaughterhouse-Five is a science fiction book by American author Kurt Vonnegut. It has been popular all over the world since its was published in 1969. It is often picked as one of the best books of all time. Slaughterhouse 5 is about a time travelling American soldier during World War II who is in the German city of Dresden when it is bombed by the Allies. The author experienced this event in his real life and so the novel is semi autobiographical.

Slaughterhouse-Five

First edition, 1969
Author	Kurt Vonnegut
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Dark comedy Satire Science fiction War novel Metafiction Postmodernism
Publisher	Delacorte
Publication date	1969
ISBN	0-385-31208-3 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC	29960763
LC Class	PS3572.O5 S6 1994

Plot summary

Modern photo of what was the Slaughterhouse-Five in which the main character Billy Pilgrim (and Kurt Vonnegut himself) sheltered in during the bombing of Dresden in 1945.

The novel follows the story of American soldier, Billy Pilgrim. Billy is what is known in literature as an unreliable narrator - his experiences are written in a way that might make the reader think they are not exactly true. To reflect this, the novel is structured in a non linear fashion. This means events are not always written in the order that they happened. Billy's stories from the war are interrupted when he is taken by aliens (called Tralfamadorians) to live in a zoo on their home planet. He also becomes "unstuck in time" and experiences his life in a random order of flashbacks.