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 worlds great anti-war books centring on the infamous fire-bombing of dresden in the second world war, billy pilgrims odyssey through time reflects the journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know