HOME View All Genre

Book

Audiobook

GENRES 🌙 Dark

While Mortals Sleep - Kurt Vonnegut

By Kurt Vonnegut

Release Date: 2011-01-25

Genre: Short Stories

4.5 (16 ratings)
Read Download
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These previously unpublished, beautifully rendered works of fiction are a testament to Kurt Vonnegut’s unique blend of observation and imagination.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

While Mortals Sleep - Kurt Vonnegut

By Kurt Vonnegut

Release Date: 2011-01-25

Genre: Short Stories

4.5 (16 ratings)
Read Download
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These previously unpublished, beautifully rendered works of fiction are a testament to Kurt Vonnegut’s unique blend of observation and imagination.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

More by Kurt Vonnegut

2 B R 0 2 B

Slaughterhouse-Five

100 Classic Books

Cat's Cradle

Breakfast of Champions

The Sirens of Titan

Slaughterhouse-Five

100 Greatest Books Collection

Slaughterhouse-Five

Nubo PD: 2BR02B

100 Greatest Books

Mother Night

Galapagos

Science Fiction Stories

Welcome to the Monkey House

100 Classic Book Collection II (2025)

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

Short Stories

Player Piano

Slaughterhouse Five

200 Greatest Books of All Time

200 Greatest Novels of All Time

100 Masterpieces You Have to Read Before You Die

Deadeye Dick

Bluebeard

The Big Trip Up Yonder: Audio Edition

Hocus Pocus

2 B R 0 2 B

Jailbird

Slapstick or Lonesome No More!

A Man Without a Country

100 Best Fiction Books

Sci-Fi ClassicsポThe Best Stories

Welcome to the Monkey House: The Special Edition

100 Great Authors

Look at the Birdie

2 B R 0 2 B

Timequake

Pity the Reader

2 B R 0 2 B

Men of Letters: The Playboy Interview

While Mortals Sleep

2 B R 0 2 B

Armageddon in Retrospect

Sci-Fi Boxed Set: 160+ Space Adventures, Lost Worlds, Dystopian Novels & Apocalyptic Tales

FUBAR (Short Story)

The Sirens of Titan

God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian

Kurt Vonnegut

Palm Sunday

Related Articles