"Marvellous...the writing is pungent, the antics uproarious, the wit as sharp as a hypodermic needle" * Daily Telegraph * "A laughing prophet of doom" * New York Times * "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' "I came to this book later in life. I think it is, among other things, the loveliest, most delicate account of post-traumatic stress I've ever read - like the water that simply runs from the eyes of Billy Pilgrim." -- Elizabeth Strout, author of 'My Name is Lucy Barton' "Unique...one of the writers who map our landscapes for us, who give names to the places we know best" -- Doris Lessing

50th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EDITIONAs a young man and a prisoner of war, Kurt Vonnegut witnessed the 1945 US fire-bombing of Dresden in Germany, which reduced the once proudly beautiful city to rubble and claimed the lives of thousands of its citizens.