The last interview Kurt Vonnegut gave before his death in 2007 was uncharacteristically brief for a man never short of words. Talking to the Chicago magazine In These Times, the great writer flits through several of his key concerns – humanism, war, the state of America – before excusing himself: "But I gotta go. I'm not well. Good luck." He died six weeks later.

The five other conversations gathered in this book offer a more generous account of Vonnegut's preoccupations. The earliest interview, first published in the Paris Review in 1977, is the longest and also the most purely enjoyable, despite its occasionally harrowing subject matter. Here, as in Vonnegut's fiction, terrible events, such as the bombing of Dresden which he experienced first-hand in his early 20s, are recounted with wry humour that sweetens the pill. In the later interviews, the jocularity persists but his growing pessimism tips the balance. But even on the darkest subjects, Vonnegut, a famously heavy smoker, is ready to make light. "I'm suing a cigarette company," he deadpans, "because their product hasn't killed me yet."