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  • Published: 7 March 2023
  • ISBN: 9781784876715
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $24.99
Categories:

Player Piano



Kurt Vonnegut's debut novel which announced his literary talents to the world. Born in 1922, Player Piano is publishing to coincide with this landmark author's 100th birthday. There will be a documentary and media to coincide too.

Player Piano is the debut novel from one of history's most innovative authors, published on Vonnegut's 100th birthday.

In Player Piano, the first of Vonnegut's wildly funny and deadly serious novels, automata have dramatically reduced the need for America's work force. Ten years after the introduction of these robot labourers, the only people still working are the engineers and their managers, who live in Ilium; everyone else lives in Homestead, an impoverished part of town characterised by purposelessness and mass produced houses.

Paul Proteus is the manager of Ilium Works. While grateful to be held in high regard, Paul begins to feel uneasy about his position - especially after a trip to Homestead. Eventually, Paul makes the decision to rebel against all he's been given, inciting seismic repercussions...

'His black logic...gives us something to laugh about and much to fear' New York Times Book Review

Watch the documentary about his life - Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time - on Prime

  • Published: 7 March 2023
  • ISBN: 9781784876715
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $24.99
Categories:

About the author

Kurt Vonnegut

Born in 1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana, KURT VONNEGUT was one of the few grandmasters of modern American letters. Called by the New York Times “the counterculture’s novelist,” his works guided a generation through the miasma of war and greed that was life in the U.S. in second half of the 20th century. After a stints as a soldier, anthropology PhD candidate, technical writer for General Electric, and salesman at a Saab dealership, Vonnegut rose to prominence with the publication ofCat’s Cradle in 1963. Several modern classics, including Slaughterhouse-Five, soon followed. Never quite embraced by the stodgier arbiters of literary taste, Vonnegut was nonetheless beloved by millions of readers throughout the world. “Given who and what I am,” he once said, “it has been presumptuous of me to write so well.” Kurt Vonnegut died in New York in 2007.

Also by Kurt Vonnegut

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Praise for Player Piano

A funny, savage appraisal of a totally automated American society of the future

San Francisco Chronicle

The seeds of his [Vonnegut's] trademarks are here: a satirical eye on the world and deep love for humanity

The Times