Mother Night: A Novel

by Kurt Vonnegut

“Vonnegut is George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer . . . a zany but moral mad scientist.”—Time

Mother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense. American Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. But is he really guilty? In this brilliant book rife with true gallows humor, Vonnegut turns black and white into a chilling shade of gray with a verdict that will haunt us all.

“A great artist.”—Cincinnati Enquirer

“A shaking up in the kaleidoscope of laughter . . . Reading Vonnegut is addictive!”—Commonweal

• ISBN10: 0385334141
• ISBN13: 9780385334143
• Publish Date: 11 May 1999 (first published 22 February 1973)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 288
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780385334143

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

Vonnegut warns that this is his only story whose moral he knows: and not that he thinks it’s a marvelous moral, he just happens to know what it is. If anything, the 3 1/2 pages of introduction are worth the entirety of the book.

As much as I love Catch-22 (and I do love it so much), I’m half-wondering how the two haven’t been switched, half-surprised that Mother Night isn’t the same ubiquitous reference as Heller’s masterpiece. It’s certainly less of a labyrinth, even while Vonnegut is at his best, circuitously slicing to the bones of things, and it’s certainly just as haunting.

Someday I might have to choose, but for as long as I can I won’t.