Slaughterhouse-Five

Who it's for

The book is built the way intrusive memory feels: Billy Pilgrim drifts without warning between the war, his suburban life and a Tralfamadorian zoo, so readers whose past keeps breaking into the present can recognize that fragmentation from the inside.

Feelings it meets

• War
• Panic Attacks
• Existential Anxiety
• Mortality
• Depression

What it is

Kurt Vonnegut's 1969 novel opens with Vonnegut himself describing his connection to the 1945 firebombing of Dresden and his long struggle to write about it.

Where to find it

In print and widely available in libraries (Libby/Hoopla); audiobook available; graphic-novel adaptation by Ryan North and Albert Monteys (2020). Not public domain.

Before you start

Heads up: Wartime mass death and executions.

Age: Ages 16+

But believe me, my dear boy, there is nothing stronger than those two: patience and time, they will do it all.Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Chapter XVI (tr. Louise and Aylmer Maude)