A Man Without a Country: 20th Anniversary Edition

The last of the canonical Kurt Vonnegut books, A Man Without a Country spent eight weeks on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list, selling over a quarter-million copies

This 20th anniversary edition features a new introduction by Lewis Black.

“For all those who have lived with Vonnegut in their imaginations . . . this is what he is like in person.”–USA Today

“The America I loved still exists, if not in the White House, the Supreme Court, the Senate, the House of Representatives, or the media. The America I loved still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.”–Kurt Vonnegut, from A Man Without a Country


The closest Kurt Vonnegut ever came to writing his autobiography, A Man Without a Country is part memoir, part social and political commentary, and part riveting personal conversation with an old friend. An undeniably moving and unique return of the literary grandmaster to form.

A Man Without a Country features Vonnegut’s coming of age, his war experiences, his life as an artist, and the hilariously funny and razor-sharp way of understanding things that helped him get through it all.

Some Vonnegut jewels in A Man without a Country:

• "If I die—God forbid—I would like to go to heaven to ask somebody in charge up there, ‘Hey, what was the good news and what was the bad news?"
• "To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it."
• "I asked former Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton what he thought of our great victory over Iraq and he said, ‘Mohammed Ali versus Mr. Rogers.’"
• And finally, on the subject of the condition of the soul of America today: "What has happened to us?"

Plentifully illustrated with the author’s signature woodcut aphorisms, which appear in the book in blue, A Man Without a Country is possibly Vonnegut’s most intimate book, and certainly one of his best.