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Hardcover First Edition
Timequake is the fourteenth and final novel released by Vonnegut, published by G. P. Putman's Sons on September 22, 1997. An excerpt appeared in the December 1997 edition of Playboy. Putman sold a slipcased "limited first edition" of 225 specially bound and autographed. In fall 1997, Easton Press released a specially designed "deluxe" edition of 1200 also signed by Vonnegut. Jonathan Cape Ltd, London published the British edition on October 16, 1997. The book contains a number of images, such as artwork by Vonnegut and his brother Bernard[1] as well as a letter and the letterhead from Vonnegut's Saab Cape Cod dealership.
The first draft of the novel was written in New York and Sagaponack from January 1993 to January 1996. After reconsidering the book in February—as Vonnegut himself describes in the Prologue—it was completely rewritten between March and December 1996.[2] The main fictional plot involves the eponymous "timequake" on February 13, 2001 which caused the universe to revert to February 17, 1991. Human beings and the rest of the world were forced to relive the previous decade of their lives, unable to make any changes. In the chaotic aftermath, the now-homeless science fiction author Kilgore Trout makes a contribution to restoring order in upper Manhattan. Interspersed within the narrative are Vonnegut's "thoughts and experience during the past seven months or so" during the rewrite.[3]