-Player Piano

Vonnegut’s first novel depicts a dystopian society where workers have been replaced by machines in an imaginary future world following the third world war. Set in the fictional town of Illium, New York, where most of Vonnegut’s novels take place, Player Piano is the story of a manager who lives on one side of the river physically distanced from the remaining workers in the factory town. To provide an outsider’s perspective, a secondary storyline follows the fictional Shah of Bratphur on his travels and describes his observations.