Catch-22

One of the greatest novels of the twentieth century - a potent satire on the madness of war.Discover Joseph Heller's hilarious and tragic satire on military madness, and the tale of one man's efforts to survive it.It's the closing months of World War II and Yossarian has never been closer to death. Stationed in an American bomber squadron off the coast of Italy, each flight mission introduces him to thousands of people determined to kill him.But the enemy above is not Yossarian's problem - it is his own army intent on keeping him airborne, and the maddening 'Catch-22' that allows for no possibility of escape.'The greatest satirical work in the English language' Observer'The most devastating satire ever written about the lunacy of war and military bureaucracy' Antony BeevorINTRODUCED BY HOWARD JACOBSON

Short-listed for BBC Big Read Top 21 2003

“Blessedly, monstrously, bloatedly, cynically funny and fantastically unique. No one has ever written a book like this”

It is a rare book in that it has the ability to make you laugh out loud and be deeply moved within a few pages. -- Adam Staten British Journal of General Practice
Wildly original, brutally gruesome, a dazzling performance that will outrage as many readers as it delights. Vulgarly, bitterly funny, it will not be forgotten by those who can take it New York Times
Blessedly, monstrously, bloatedly, cynically funny and fantastically unique. No one has ever written a book like this Financial Times
The greatest satirical work in the English language Philip Toynbee, Observer
Blessedly, monstrously, bloatedly, cynically funny, and fantastically unique. No one has ever written a book like this Financial Times

Joseph Heller (Author)Joseph Heller was born in 1923 in Brooklyn, New York. He served as a bombardier in the Second World War and then attended New York University and Columbia University and then Oxford, the last on a Fullbright scholarship. He then taught for two years at Pennsylvania State University, before returning to New York, where he began a successful career in the advertising departments of Time, Look and McCall's magazines. It was during this time that he had the idea for Catch-22. Working on the novel in spare moments and evenings at home, it took him eight years to complete and was first published in 1961. His second novel, Something Happened was published in 1974, Good As Gold in 1979 and Closing Time in 1994. He is also the author of the play We Bombed in New Haven.Howard Jacobson (Introducer)Howard Jacobson has written seventeen novels and six works of non-fiction. He won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Award in 2000 for The Mighty Walzer and then again in 2013 for Zoo Time. In 2010 he won the Man Booker Prize for The Finkler Question; he was also shortlisted for the prize in 2014 for J.

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