While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction

· Sold by Delacorte Press
4.0
6 reviews
Ebook
272
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Foreword by Dave Eggers

These previously unpublished, beautifully rendered works of fiction are a testament to Kurt Vonnegut’s unique blend of observation and imagination. Here are stories of men and machines, art and artifice, and how ideals of fortune, fame, and love take curious twists in ordinary lives.

An ambitious builder of roads fritters away his free time with miniature trains—until the women in his life crash his fantasy land. Trapped in a stenography pool, a young dreamer receives a call from a robber on the run, who presents her with a strange proposition. A crusty newspaperman is forced onto a committee to judge Christmas displays—a job that leads him to a suspiciously ostentatious ex-con and then a miracle. Featuring a Foreword by Dave Eggers, While Mortals Sleep is a poignant reflection of our world as it is and as it could be.

Includes the following stories:

“Jenny”
“The Epizootic”
“Hundred-Dollar Kisses”
“Guardian of the Person”
“With His Hand on the Throttle”
“Girl Pool”
“Ruth”
“While Mortals Sleep”
“Out, Brief Candle”
“Tango”
“Bomar”
“The Man Without No Kiddleys”
“Mr. Z”
“$10,000 a Year, Easy”
“Money Talks”
“The Humbugs” 

Praise for While Mortals Sleep

“Immensely readable and thoroughly entertaining.”—The Washington Post

“Taut, concise . . . The stories set themselves up with neat swiftness, proceed at a clip, and shut down with equal speed, [showing Vonnegut] honing his skills in structure and satire.”—Los Angeles Times 

“A lovely reminder of the mischievous moral voice we lost when we lost Kurt Vonnegut.”—San Francisco Chronicle 
 
“These stories were all good when they were written decades ago, but many strike me as great now. Never has the voice of Kurt Vonnegut, humanist and humorist, been more relevant.”The Seattle Times
 
“There’s something distinctly timeless about Vonnegut’s vision.”Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Ratings and reviews

4.0
6 reviews

About the author

Kurt Vonnegut’s humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination first captured America’s attention in The Sirens of Titan in 1959 and established him as “a true artist” (The New York Times) with Cat’s Cradle in 1963. He was, as Graham Greene declared, “one of the best living American writers.” Mr. Vonnegut passed away in April 2007.
 
Dave Eggers is the author of six previous books, including Zeitoun, What Is the What, and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. He is the founder and editor of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing house. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children.

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.