Bob Slocum was a promising executive. He had an attractive wife, three children, a nice house, and as many mistresses as he desired. His life was settled and ordered; he had conformed and society demanded he be happy - or at least pretend to be, But the pretence was becoming more and more difficult, as Slocum's discontent grew into an overwhelming sense of desolation, frustration and fear. And then something happened. . .

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, Columbia and Oxford University, the last on a Fullbright scholarship. He taught for two years at Pennsylvania State University, before returning to New York, where he began a successful career in the advertising departments ofTime, Lookand McCall's magazines. It was during this time that he had the idea forCatch-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 Happenedwas published in 1974,Good As Goldin 1979 andClosing Timein 1994. He is also the author of the play 'We Bombed in New Haven'. Joseph Heller died in 1999.