Prisoner of war, optometrist, time-traveller - these are the life roles of Billy Pilgrim, hero of this miraculously moving, bitter and funny story of innocence faced with apocalypse. Slaughterhouse 5 is one of the world`s great anti-war books. Centring on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden in the Second World War, Billy Pilgrim`s odyssey through time reflects the journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.