Catch-22

Catch-22

First edition cover
Author	Joseph Heller
Cover artist	Paul Bacon[1]
Language	English
Genre	Dark comedy, absurdist fiction, satire, war fiction, historical fiction
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Publication date	October 10, 1961[2]
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardback)
Pages	453 (1st edition hardback)
ISBN	0-671-12805-1
OCLC	35231812
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 22
LC Class	PS3558.E476 C3 2004
Followed by	Closing Time (1994)

Catch-22 is a satirical war novel by American author Joseph Heller. It is his debut novel. He began writing it in 1953; the novel was first published in 1961. Often cited as one of the most significant novels of the twentieth century,^[3] it uses a distinctive non-chronological third-person omniscient narration, describing events from the points of view of different characters. The separate storylines are out of sequence so the timeline develops along with the plot.

The novel is set during World War II, from 1942 to 1944. It mainly follows the life of antihero Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier. Most of the events in the book occur while the fictional 256th US Army Air Squadron is based on the island of Pianosa, in the Mediterranean Sea west of the Italian mainland, although it also includes episodes from basic training at Lowry Field in Colorado and Air Corps training at Santa Ana Army Air Base in California. The novel examines the absurdity of war and military life through the experiences of Yossarian and his cohorts, who attempt to maintain their sanity while fulfilling their service requirements so that they may return home.

The book was made into a film adaptation in 1970, directed by Mike Nichols, and a Hulu miniseries in 2019, produced by George Clooney. In 1994, Heller published a sequel to the novel entitled Closing Time.