Cover of Slaughterhouse-Five

Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut, 1969

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.

In science fiction

On 4 of the 17 lists it was eligible for.

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At a glance

Author
Kurt Vonnegut
First published
1969
Awards
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).

ListPlaceOriginal
100 Best Novels (board's list) (Modern Library, 1998)No. 18See the list
All-Time 100 Novels (Time, 2005)ListedSee the list
National Book Award for Fiction (winners and finalists) (National Book Foundation, 1970)ShortlistSee the list
Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian, 2026)No. 21See 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.

Critics
21%
Prizes
33%
Readers and booksellers
18%

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.

Lists used on this page