"A madcap genealogical adventure . . . Vonnegut is a postmodern Mark Twain."-The New York Times Book Review
Galápagos takes the reader back one million years, to A.D. 1986. A simple vacation cruise suddenly becomes an evolutionary journey. Thanks to an apocalypse, a small group of survivors stranded on the Galápagos Islands are about to become the progenitors of a brave, new, and totally different human race. In this inimitable novel, America' s master satirist looks at our world and shows us all that is sadly, madly awry–and all that is worth saving.
Praise for Galápagos
"The best Vonnegut novel yet!"-John Irving
"Beautiful . . . provocative, arresting reading."-USA Today
"A satire in the classic tradition . . . a dark vision, a heartfelt warning."-The Detroit Free Press
"Interesting, engaging, sad and yet very funny . . . Vonnegut is still in top form. If he has no prescription for alleviating the pain of the human condition, at least he is a first-rate diagnostician."-Susan Isaacs, Newsday
"Dark . . . original and funny."-People
"A triumph of style, originality and warped yet consistent logic . . . a condensation, an evolution of Vonnegut's entire career, including all the issues and questions he has pursued relentlessly for four decades."-The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Wild details, wry humor, outrageous characters . . . Galápagos is a comic lament, a sadly ironic vison."-St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"A work of high comedy, sadness and imagination."-The Denver Post
"Wacky wit and irreverent imagination . . . and the full range of technical innovations have made [Vonnegut] America's preeminent experimental novelist."-The Minneapolis Star and Tribune "The best Vonnegut novel yet!"-John Irving
"Beautiful . . . provocative, arresting reading."-USA Today
"A madcap genealogical adventure . . . Vonnegut is a postmodern Mark Twain."-The New York Times Book Review
"A satire in the classic tradition . . . a dark vision, a heartfelt warning."-The Detroit Free Press
"Interesting, engaging, sad and yet very funny . . . Vonnegut is still in top form. If he has no prescription for alleviating the pain of the human condition, at least he is a first-rate diagnostician."-Susan Isaacs, Newsday
"Dark . . . original and funny."-People
"A triumph of style, originality and warped yet consistent logic . . . a condensation, an evolution of Vonnegut's entire career, including all the issues and questions he has pursued relentlessly for four decades."-The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Wild details, wry humor, outrageous characters . . . Galápagos is a comic lament, a sadly ironic vison."-St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"A work of high comedy, sadness and imagination."-The Denver Post
"Wacky wit and irreverent imagination . . . and the full range of technical innovations have made [Vonnegut] America's preeminent experimental novelist."-The Minneapolis Star and Tribune Chapter One
The Thing Was:
One million years ago, back in 1986 A.D., Guayaquil was the chief seaport of the little South American democracy of Ecuador, whose capital was Quito, high in the Andes Mountains. Guayaquil was two degrees south of the equator, the imaginary bellyband of the planet after which the country itself was named. It was always very hot there, and humid, too, for the city was built in the doldrums--on a springy marsh through which the mingled waters of several rivers draining the mountains flowed.
This seaport was several kilometers from the open sea. Rafts of vegetable matter often clogged the soupy waters, engulfing pilings and anchor lines.
. . .
Human beings had much bigger brains back then than they do today, and so they could be beguiled by mysteries. One such mystery in 1986 was how so many creatu
