
Slaughterhouse-Five
American novelist, 1922–2007.
Slaughterhouse-Five is a 1969 novel by Kurt Vonnegut. It was shortlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction in 1970.
On 4 of the 17 lists it was eligible for.
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At a glance
- Author
- Kurt Vonnegut
- First published
- 1969
- Awards
- National Book Award for Fiction shortlist, 1970
- Genre
- Science fiction, War and conflict, Satire, Postmodern
Is Slaughterhouse-Five worth reading?
4 of the 17 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them 100 Best Novels (board's list) (Modern Library) and Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian).
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| 100 Best Novels (board's list) (Modern Library, 1998) | No. 18 | See the list |
| All-Time 100 Novels (Time, 2005) | Listed | See the list |
| National Book Award for Fiction (winners and finalists) (National Book Foundation, 1970) | Shortlist | See the list |
| Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian, 2026) | No. 21 | See the list |
Best edition of Slaughterhouse-Five
The edition we link to is the Penguin Random House UK paperback (2016).
- Publisher
- Penguin Random House UK (paperback, 2016)
- ISBN
- 9781784871345
How critics, prizes and readers rate Slaughterhouse-Five
Prize juries rate it most highly: it earned 33% of the points available on prize lists, against 21% on critics' lists and 18% on readers' and booksellers' lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like Slaughterhouse-Five
If you liked Slaughterhouse-Five, try Nineteen Eighty-Four, Ulysses or Catch-22.



