Slaughterhouse-Five

Billy Pilgrim jumps through his own life, from a prisoner-of-war camp in Dresden to an ordinary postwar marriage to a planet called Tralfamadore. The structure mimics how trauma works: the past is never really past.

Vonnegut writes about one of the worst events of the war with deadpan jokes and short, plain sentences, and the refrain "so it goes" turns every death, large or small, into a quiet gasp. It is funny and devastating at the same time, which is a rare balance.

The science fiction elements are a coping mechanism rather than escapism. This is a short book you can finish in an afternoon and think about for years.