Overview

From the author of Slaughterhouse 5. The human survivors of the nature cruise of the century, are quietly evolving into sleek, furry creatures with flippers and small brains. All other forms of humankind have ceased to exist, made redundant by their prized big brains.

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‘The best Vonnegut novel yet!’ John Irving ‘Beautiful … provocative, arresting reading.’ USA Today ‘A madcap genealogical adventure … Vonnegut is a postmodern Mark Twain.’ The New York Times Book Review ‘A satire in the classic tradition … a dark vision, a heartfelt warning.’ The Detroit Free Press ‘Interesting, engaging, sad and yet very funny … Vonnegut is still in top form. If he has no prescription for alleviating the pain of the human condition, at least he is a first-rate diagnostician.’ Susan Isaacs, Newsday ‘Dark … original and funny.’ People ‘A triumph of style, originality and warped yet consistent logic … a condensation, an evolution of Vonnegut's entire career, including all the issues and questions he has pursued relentlessly for four decades.’ The Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Wild details, wry humor, outrageous characters … Galápagos is a comic lament, a sadly ironic vison.’ St. Louis Post-Dispatch ‘A work of high comedy, sadness and imagination.’ The Denver Post ‘Wacky wit and irreverent imagination … and the full range of technical innovations have made [Vonnegut] America's preeminent experimental novelist.’ The Minneapolis Star and Tribune

Once again Vonnegut throws up his hands at the human race, condemning it for its overweening technology, war-making, greed and other perversities. And yet, underneath, he still seems to like people, so his solution in this quasi-science-fiction novel is to evolve humanity for another million years until it becomes unift for mischief - in fact, fit for little else but catching fish. In this prickly and only occasionally funny ramble, that represents progress. The narrator is a ghost in this death-haunted tale, a disillusioned Vietnam vet who happens to be the son of Vonnegut's Kilgore Trout. He watches as an odd lot of damaged people assemble in 1986 in an Ecuadorean port to join the nature cruise of the century to Galapagos, volcanic islands made famous by Darwin's visit. The world is in the throes of an economic crisis, Ecuadoreans are starving, war and all hell break out - and the little band of misfits, reduced in number but augmented by some cannibal girls, set out to sea for refuge. It is they who become the ancestors of the future human race because the rest of the world becomes sterile and dies out. Vonnegut has his followers who like big issues treated in so jaunty a fashion. His voice is good, clear middle. American, and he doesn't beat about the bush. One of his devices is to put an asterisk by the name of a character who is about to die. There is a subtext to this story: an attempt to deal with disease and death by mocking them. Vonnegut is whistling in the dark, and it's a thin, jumpy little tune despite his feats of imagination. But his dark is real enough. (Kirkus Reviews)

'The best Vonnegut novel yet!' John Irving 'Beautiful ... provocative, arresting reading.' USA Today 'A madcap genealogical adventure ... Vonnegut is a postmodern Mark Twain.' The New York Times Book Review 'A satire in the classic tradition ... a dark vision, a heartfelt warning.' The Detroit Free Press 'Interesting, engaging, sad and yet very funny ... Vonnegut is still in top form. If he has no prescription for alleviating the pain of the human condition, at least he is a first-rate diagnostician.' Susan Isaacs, Newsday 'Dark ... original and funny.' People 'A triumph of style, originality and warped yet consistent logic ... a condensation, an evolution of Vonnegut's entire career, including all the issues and questions he has pursued relentlessly for four decades.' The Philadelphia Inquirer 'Wild details, wry humor, outrageous characters ... Galapagos is a comic lament, a sadly ironic vison.' St. Louis Post-Dispatch 'A work of high comedy, sadness and imagination.' The Denver Post 'Wacky wit and irreverent imagination ... and the full range of technical innovations have made [Vonnegut] America's preeminent experimental novelist.' The Minneapolis Star and Tribune

`The best Vonnegut novel yet!' John Irving `Beautiful ... provocative, arresting reading.' USA Today `A madcap genealogical adventure ... Vonnegut is a postmodern Mark Twain.' The New York Times Book Review `A satire in the classic tradition ... a dark vision, a heartfelt warning.' The Detroit Free Press `Interesting, engaging, sad and yet very funny ... Vonnegut is still in top form. If he has no prescription for alleviating the pain of the human condition, at least he is a first-rate diagnostician.' Susan Isaacs, Newsday `Dark ... original and funny.' People `A triumph of style, originality and warped yet consistent logic ... a condensation, an evolution of Vonnegut's entire career, including all the issues and questions he has pursued relentlessly for four decades.' The Philadelphia Inquirer `Wild details, wry humor, outrageous characters ... Galapagos is a comic lament, a sadly ironic vison.' St. Louis Post-Dispatch `A work of high comedy, sadness and imagination.' The Denver Post `Wacky wit and irreverent imagination ... and the full range of technical innovations have made [Vonnegut] America's preeminent experimental novelist.' The Minneapolis Star and Tribune

Author Information

Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis in 1922 and studied biochemistry at Cornell University. After serving in Europe during the Second World War, he specialised in anthropology at the University of Chicago before becoming a full-time writer. Author of more than fifteen published novels, Vonnegut is perhaps best described as a social satirist. A writer of almost prophetic vision, his work not only covers a wide variety of genres, including science fiction, but also often mixes genres within the same book. His amazing versatility and imaginative range have earned him international acclaim for his novels, which include Player Piano, Slaughterhouse-Five, Deadeye Dick and Bluebeard.

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