While Mortals Sleep

Description

A collection of sixteen previously unpublished stories by the twentieth century master. While Mortals Sleep is a smart, clear-eyed collection of stories from one of the most original writers in American fiction. Set in trailers, bars and factories, Vonnegut conjures up a world where men and machines, art and artifice, fame and fortune become curiously twisted and characters pit their dreams and fears against a cruel and comically indifferent world. Written early in his career, and never published before, these tightly plotted stories are infused with Vonnegut's distinctive blend of observation, imagination and scabrous humour. This collection features an introduction by Dave Eggers.

Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis in 1922 and studied biochemistry at Cornell University. During the Second World War he served in Europe and, as a prisoner of was in Germany, witnessed the destruction of Dresden by Allied bombers, an experience which inspired his classic novel Slaughterhouse-Five. He is the author of thirteen other novels, three collections of stories and five non-fiction books. Kurt Vonnegut died in 2007.

Vonnegut is masterful at quickly sketching a character who you instantly recognise and immeadiately are willing to follow... no matter the plot, you as the reader know that by the end of the story, you will get somewhere. That Vonnegut will tell you something with candour and clarity -- Dave Eggers A cool writer, at once throwaway and passionate and very funny * Financial Times * A satirist with a heart, a moralist with a whoopee cushion, a cynic who wants to believe -- Jay McInerney Unimitative and inimitable social satirist * Harper's * A laughing prophet of doom * New York Times *