Fusing vivid biography with popular history and close textual analysis, this book tells the fascinating story of the making of Slaughterhouse-Five - a modern classic - and the writer that created it.

Banned, burned, and censored, Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 novel Slaughterhouse-Five is widely regarded as one of the greatest (and most controversial) novels of the twentieth century. Fusing vivid biography with popular history and close textual analysis, Vonnegut's War tells the fascinating story of the making of a modern classic and the writer that created it.

New archival discoveries and recently released oral histories give us the fullest account yet published of Vonnegut's real-life prisoner-of-war experiences at Stalag IV-B and Dresden, which heavily influenced Slaughterhouse-Five. A recently discovered trove of letters introduces us to his first wife, Jane Cox Vonnegut, and her influence on his writing. Along the way, we also encounter UFOs and aliens, grapple with the shadow cast by the Vietnam war, and unearth the stranger-than-fiction tale of David Irving’s The Destruction of Dresden, the historical reference behind Vonnegut's writing about the Dresden firebombing.

This book sheds light on one of America’s most beloved writers and explores how cultural forces helped to shape a modern masterpiece of storytelling.

"Vonnegut’s War draws on oral histories and new archival discoveries, shedding light on how cultural forces shaped the classic 1969 time travel novel." - SFX

"Susan Farrell writes with warmth and style. Her penetrating study of Kurt Vonnegut’s life and work uncovers facets that freshly illuminate a much-read novel we thought we knew. With one keen insight after another, Farrell shows why Slaughterhouse-Five was a novel for its time, how it made its tumultuous, icon-smashing and self-questioning time, and why it remains a novel for our time." - Ken Kalfus

"Farrell writes the defining historiography of SL5, answering the question,“How the hell did Vonnegut do that?” by sequencing its well archived drafts before contextualizing his narrative choices. And that’s just the half of it. Farrell addresses SL5’s principle defining discussions including its metafictional elements, the questioned morality of Dresden’s bombing, its adoption as a valued tome among Vietnam protestors, Vonnegut’s science fiction albatross, and the novel’s importance in court history as a frequent target for censorship." - Marc Leeds, Author of The Vonnegut Encyclopedia,

"In Vonnegut’s War, Professor Susan Farrell neatly pieces together how Vonnegut created a modern classic whose anti-war message remains as relevant as ever." - The Independent

"This book is superb. It’s a unique, fresh, deep dive into how Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut’s seminal work, came about. It’s also a damn good read: Concise, substantial, entertaining, surprising." - Suzanne McConnell, author of 'Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style' by Kurt Vonnegut and Suzanne McConnell

"Farrell (Imagining Home), a literature professor at the College of Charleston, offers an arresting account of the creation and impact of Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 novel Slaughterhouse-Five...This is a tour de force of literary detective work." - Publishers Weekly